Time Crash
by trevor.lacey.52
Summary: (Shard is now cover image!) The homeworld Gems have created many insidious devices to help them take over planets, but with a final superweapon under development, Earth doesn't have much time left. Unless of course, time is subject to change... (Rated T for violence. Please review!)
1. What came from the crash 1

Author's Note:

Hey everyone, I just wanted to say that I hope you enjoy my story. It is my first for Steven Universe, although I have done Adventure Time and Minecraft stories before. Also, my grammar may need a bit of work. If you like (or don't like) the story, please comment, even if just to tell me of spelling mistakes or how I can make it better. And now, on to the first chapter…

P.S. This is set after the events of 'jail break', but before 'full disclosure'. Anyhow, enjoy!

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Steven had just hung up his phone after answering Connie's questions, and now he and the Gems were looking around at all the damage caused by the ship's crash landing. The upper end of a Gem de-stabilizer was sticking up through the top of a large pile of rubble Steven had started to climb in order to get a better vantage point. Just before he got to the top, he heard a hoarse coughing noise coming from inside the pile, followed by and arm breaking up to the surface in front of him.

"Uh, guys?" Steven yelled down to the other Gems. "I think someone is under here!"

"A human?" Pearl asked, worry clearly evident in her voice.

"I don't know, all I can see is an arm." He replied.

The arm continued to move around until its hand found something good to grab on to, and then the being underneath began to pull itself up. A few pieces of rubble were dislodged by this and fell down, forcing Steven to have to run back down the pile to avoid getting crushed by the shifting debris.

Garnet ran forwards to grab Steven just before a relatively small chunk of the ship would have crashed down on his head. All the Gems now stood and watched as the body continued to emerge from the pile. The being seemed to be a young adult white male with very spikey dark brown hair, dressed in a long metallic black trench coat covering a slightly ripped black shirt with picture of some small nova cloud out in space and what appeared to be very dark blue pants, almost on the verge of being black themselves. As he continued to pull himself out he looked around and saw the Gems.

"Hello!" He called out in the strongest voice he could muster, which unfortunately for him was still quite quiet, although just loud enough to be heard by the Gems. "Could I have some help getting out of here?"

"Are you… Human?" Pearl asked.

"No, I'm not. Is that really important?" He asked. Having nearly freed himself already, he continued to look around waiting for an answer until he spotted the Gem de-stabilizer near him. "It survived?" He nearly shouted to himself as he lunged at it, which caused it to move and start to fall down the pile. "No, no, no, no, Noo!" He quickly face-palmed at his stupidity before pulling his last leg free and falling down after it, trying to catch it before it broke.

A few seconds later he landed a couple feet in front of the Gems, the de-stabilizer just out of reach in front of him. Amethyst picked it up carefully and held it away from him. Pearl pulled out her weapon and pointed it at him in a defensive position, while Garnet summoned her gauntlets. Steven just stood slightly behind Garnet, watching. The mysterious figure slowly raised his face, only to see Pearl's spear a few feet above him and pointed right at him.

"Uhhg…" He groaned as he shifted a bit. Crashing and then falling out of rubble was certainly not the most pleasant experience he'd ever had. "Did it break?" He weakly asked.

"This thing?" Said Amethyst, holding his prize above him well out of reach.

"Yes. Give it to me." He replied.

Pearl was not ready to let this stranger who had willingly said they were not human gain a tool who's destructive and dangerous force she had recently witnessed. "Not yet. What are you if you aren't human?"

"That is a question I'd like an answer to myself." He said. "By the way, is Lapis still here?"

_Well, he knows Lapis._ Pearl thought. _Which means he must have been to homeworld or be in some sort of league with the other Gems._ "Lapis is not here. Now, if you will not answer what you are, then who are you?"

"Where is she?" Was all he said.

"Listen, we will ask the questions here, and you will answer them. Until you have proven yourself trustworthy, you are to all intents and purposes our captive." Garnet said.

"Well then, if that's what I am, you'll have to provide some healing for my nearly fatal internal injuries, which, by the way, won't be treatable in current human hospitals, because I'm not going to be much use to you dead." He said with a slight smirk. "And now, please excuse me while I black out."

After a few seconds of debating; Steven, Pearl, and Garnet carried his unconscious body inside so they could figure out what to do with him while Amethyst went to put the Gem de-stabilizer somewhere safe in case they could use it to make the stranger talk once he woke up.

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End of Introduction chapter. Hope you all enjoyed! Next Chapter will be out within around a week or so, maybe sooner if it gets lots of comments that like it. Bye!


	2. What came from the crash 2

Early second chapter! Next one may be as late as Friday, hopefully Wednesday. Enjoy!

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The strange being who had recently fallen unconscious in front of the Gems was now resting on their couch. Pearl and Garnet were trying to figure out what to do to treat the internal injuries mentioned, but were having trouble because he was not human, and while he had come with the other Gems from homeworld, he never said that he himself had a gem, and none were readily visible on him, so deciding even where to start was difficult as they had no idea what he was. After debating for a while, they decided that Steven may as well attempt to use his healing powers on him. So, Steven licked his hand and gave it a light slap to the stranger's chest, not knowing exactly where the injuries were.

_Oh, man, what was that? I feel… wait… I feel something! It must be time to wake up._ The stranger opened his eyes slightly and took in the scenery before him. He was lying on a couch in what appeared to be the shack near the crashed ship. The Pearl, the Ruby, and the Sapphire were standing in front of him staring at him, and he could see the… other one… from the corner of his eyes off to his right. _Wait, no, that's just a Garnet. I need to stop seeing these fused beings separately,_ he thought.

"Healed me so soon?" he asked. "I don't know how that is even possible; it usually takes… oowwwww…. Ok, not healed, just forced awake… what do you want from me? I really can't stay conscious much longer in my condition."

"But, my healing powers should have fixed you if they could make you wake up." said Steven. "Maybe you're just sore."

"Listen, kid, I know what sore is, and what I am is not that. Besides, healing powers are only going to crack my Gem worse if anything. I can't even fix it myself, so what makes you… think you have… a… chance….." he said, getting more tired with each word he said.

And so with these words, the stranger fell back into his sleep. Although all the Gems tried their best to wake him up or find his gem, none of them were very successful. A few hours after he last fell unconscious, what little color he'd had in him had left, leaving him even paler than Pearl. Knowing that he was a Gem, or at least claimed to be, eventually they decided to wait for him to retreat to his gem to heal. As night fell, the Crystal gems each went off to their separate rooms, except for Amethyst who was given the first shift in watching the prisoner.

The stars slowly turned their way across the night sky as Amethyst sat and watched to stranger. Silence descended as any other living creature fell asleep. Bored, Amethyst decided to get a quick snack form the fridge. After grabbing a few things, she turned around and found that the stranger's right arm, which had before been resting next to him on the couch, was now hanging off the edge with his hand on the ground. She slowly came back to her spot on the floor a few feet away and began eating her snack, keeping a careful eye on the arm as she did so. Around 4:30 or so, a very sleepy Steven came downstairs to get a drink, having woken up from his not-so-restful sleep.

"Hey Steven, what woke you?" she asked as he walked over to look at the stranger after getting his drink.

"Just some strange dreams about Lion. Why is our guest's arm off the couch? Did you move him?" he said.

"No, it just was like that after I got my snack. I don't know what happened."

"Maybe we should just put it back up?" Steven suggested while picking up the arm. Unfortunately, after setting the stranger's arm back on the couch, he found himself incapable of letting go. Why he couldn't he didn't know, but it was starting to scare him. But right as he was about to ask Amethyst to help him, an absolutely massive wave of drowsiness washed over him, sending him back to sleep instantly.

_"Steven. Steven! Bring the thing the stranger wanted from the crashed ship. Maybe it can separate you from his arm."_ said a familiar voice, although not one that Steven could remember at the moment. _"Steven! Steven, please, wake up!"_ said another voice from somewhere in the dull grey void Steven was floating in. But this one he remembered. It was Pearl. Which meant… _"I'm asleep?"_ Steven thought.

Pearl continued to beg Steven's sleeping form to wake up as Amethyst shook him and Garnet tried to separate his grip on the stranger's arm. To the relief of them all, Steven finally began to open his eyes. Garnet smiled as she was afraid he wouldn't wake up as long as he was connected to the stranger on the couch, although she still was unsure as to why and how he was holding on so tight that even she couldn't separate them.

"Pearl, Garnet? How did you get out here so fast, I only just fell asleep a few seconds ago."

"Uh, you've been asleep for a few hours dude." said Amethyst as she released her hold on him. "We've been trying to wake you up since really soon after you fell asleep, but you only just started responding a couple minutes ago."

"But… it seems like only a few seconds…" Steven mused. Slight tinglings in his fingers where he was touching the stranger suddenly began and quickly worked their way up his arm, getting more intense as they climbed, only to stop advancing as they reached his shoulder. "Hey! That hurts! Now it's shocking me! Someone help get me off this thing!"

"I didn't want to have to do this, but Steven, hold still." Garnet commanded. She had him move away enough that both his and the stranger's arms were stretched as far as they could without hurting them, then summoned her gauntlets. Folding her fingers together, she brought them bother down on the arm or the stranger slightly above where Steven was holding on. She had been hoping that if she broke the arm off the strange man would be forced back into his gem and Steven would be free. But unfortunately for her, the only thing shattering was her gauntlets.

_"Bring the thing the stranger wanted from the crashed ship, maybe it can separate you from his arm."_ Steven remembered this line from his 'dream' as soon as Garnet's gauntlets made contact with the stranger's arm. Seeing now that even Garnet couldn't separate them, Steven decided to make this thought known. "Um, guys? Do you think that thing from the ship this guy wanted could split us apart? For some reason I keep thinking of it."

At first none of the Gems seemed too enthusiastic about his idea, but after several minutes of arguing, they finally reached a new decision. Bring on the de-stabilizer.

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Hope you like this chapter, I tried to be more descriptive and use less talking, although I'm not very good at it so I only kind-of was able to accomplish that. Either way, please review to let me know how you like it, and I'll see you all later!


	3. What came from the crash 3

Alright, here's chapter 3! I hope you all like it and ask that you leave a comment to let me know what you think of it if you have the time. Now, on to the show!

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Garnet held the gem de-stabilizer over the stomach of the stranger on the couch. It had taken several minutes of arguing to decide if this should be done. It did make sense in a way; if the stranger really was a gem, he would be forced back into it by the tool, while Steven remained there thanks to his human side's immunity. But still, stabbing a stranger with this… thing. It just seemed so weird. But, if it would save Steven…

She stabbed the de-stabilizer down towards him, attempting to drive it through him. It didn't even crack the front of him open. It just… stopped there, on his stomach. The yellow lines began to appear slowly across him after a few incredibly long and tense seconds of waiting, but they didn't spread very far before they began to turn green, then slowly shift to a cyan color.

"Oh, I knew this was a bad idea!" Pearl cried. "It's not working like it was before and Steven still isn't…"

Steven's hand was suddenly released from its lock on the stranger's arm. In fact, for a second it was even repulsed from it, sending him stumbling back a few feet. The de-stabilizer on the other hand, was just as stuck to the stranger as Steven had been, the now cyan energy it was creating being constantly absorbed by the mysterious figure as fast as it could be produced.

"I'm free!" Steven yelled out in excitement. "It worked!"

"That's great Steven, but now we have another problem. I can't remove the tool now." Garnet said in a worried tone.

Both the stranger's arms suddenly reached out and grabbed the handle of the de-stabilizer away from Garnet. He slowly sat up and opened his brightly glowing aquamarine eyes. "And who says that's a bad thing?" He questioned before beginning to laugh. "Oh yes, now we are getting somewhere all right. Precious healing power at long last."

The stranger now got off the couch and took a few steps backwards, just out of reach of any of the currently shocked Crystal Gems. The cyan lights, which had been very slowly running through him, finally finished covering him. Now that its job was done, the stranger removed the tool from his gut and stuck in down in a pocket inside his trench coat.

"All healed and fully functional, along with complete restoration of all memories, slight temporary amnesia-like confusion aside. Which means now, I know that you fi- four… are….. You call yourselves the Crystal Gems, correct? Oh… now I get it. The half-breed makes so much more sense now." The stranger ranted on. "I should probably tell you my name now that I think of it, you must be very confused. I am Shard, at your service." He said as he gave a quick bow. "Now, tell me again, where's Lapis? I can't quite remember the last few hours very well."

Pearl was clearly about to launch a torrent of questions and responses at 'Shard', as he called himself, but Garnet had something much more important she needed an answer to. Stepping forwards, she silenced the rest of the Gems with a very disturbing question. "Why can't I see you with my future vision?" she asked Shard.

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Sorry this is a short chapter. I didn't have much time to work on it as I've had lots of school to take care of, but don't worry, the next chapter will be normal length. So, please let me know how you liked it in the comments, and feel free to guess why Garnet's future vision unable to see Shard. If anyone gets really close to the correct answer before I post the next chapter (probably Friday or Saturday), then I'll give them a shout-out in the beginning author's note. Until next time, Bye!


	4. What came from the crash 4

Alright, fourth chapter! Already longer than my first story, and half-way to beating my second. Anyhow, OMAC001, you were kind of close to right I guess, although it isn't _quite_ as simple as you'd said. Anyhow, on to the show!

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Shard's grin could not have been bigger. He loved it when his mere existence confused people. He was a little on the strange side for that, and a lot on the strange side for, well, everything else. But being strange is what kept him alive so far, and it was fun. Still, if he was going to get the help of these Gems he'd have to give them reason to trust him.

"Oh, future vision not working? That's a shame… to be expected though." he said, still grinning. "See, I used to be a biological being, around three and a half thousand years ago. Then my home planet was attacked by Gems and I was forced to leave. Eventually I stole a bunch of Gem tech and used it to enhance my body enough so I could attempt battle against them to save my planet, but by the time I was strong enough, everyone from my planet was dead. I've been training and learning about them ever since, learning weaknesses so I can eventually stop them. I have found that the combined might of the gem forces is near invincible, but that I have the one thing none of them ever can. My gem, which is artificial and was not part of me when I was born, an add-on you might say… is made of the only substance in the universe a Gem of your race cannot have. Pure, cold, hardened crystalline antimatter. I've been alive for three and a half millennia because the antimatter energy flowing through me is undetectable by anything the Gems have, including future vision. After all, antimatter is basically just normal matter traveling through time backwards. So, back to my earlier question…" he said, wrapping up his speech. "Where is Lapis? I need her alive and well if I'm to put an end to the horror homeworld is about to become."

While he'd been talking Shard had let himself begin floating slightly above the ground, gradually getting higher as he spoke. He couldn't really help himself, floating was just his natural state now, it had been for millennia. The Crystal gems were not at all sure what to do or make of him, but he seemed pretty serious. Well, ok, kind of serious. It was hard to tell how serious he really was, insanity had claimed him long ago, leaving him perpetually in a happy mood and with a nearly permanent grin plastered on his face. In fact, as he knew all too well somewhere deep in the far, dark corners of his mind, the fact that he decided to become a crazy joy-filled joker on the outside was the only way to keep his mind from really snapping at the darkness he had seen.

The Gems continued to stand there, trying to think of appropriate responses or questions to what he had said. While not very long, his monologue had left them with more confusion in their minds than had been there for a long time.

"I can see you still need a while to soak in what I've told you. Why don't you think and talk together while I keep resting here and get used to being in a planet's gravity again." Shard suggested as he began to float upside-down a few feet from the ceiling. "I'll be right here until then, ok?"

"Uhhh, sure… we'll talk later…" Garnet said as she moved the others back with her to their rooms. Future vision was the reason she was able to do anything before, it gave her plenty of time to see and think before reacting. But not being able to use it on Shard made sure that this information would be left to process for a while before she could think properly again.

All four gems moved back until reaching the door behind the warp pad, which they then entered. Once inside and with a closed door, they all sank down to the ground to figure out a proper reaction to Shard's… presence. Garnet sat down and held her head between her hands, Pearl crossed her legs and began meditating, Amethyst lay on her stomach and closed her eyes, and Steven just stood leaning against a wall wondering when the Gems would figure something out. He didn't really know what to think without their input here, the whole thing was just too strange.

**Meanwhile, a few dozen miles outside Beach City in a corn field:**

"Stupid crystal gems, breaking my ship, messing up my work… now I have to find a way back to their stupid house just to get to my ship, then I have to fix the galactic warp, and find Jasper and Lapis… I am never going to hear the end of this back at homeworld. Beaten by a bunch of outdated scum on a backwater planet…" Peridot muttered to herself as she began working her way back to the place the ship had landed. "And I'm never getting promoted..." she said as she hung her head slightly and continued to trudge down the road.

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I really hope you all like this chapter. I know it may seem a bit rushed, but I promise I am trying my best to keep it from being like that all the time. Either way, please review if you have anything at all to say about the story, I don't even mind a few bad reviews if you didn't like something, as long as you try to be reasonably level-headed and don't flame without giving a good reason. Next chapter will be out on Saturday. See you then!


	5. What came from the crash 5

Chapter 5! What is this sorcery? Nothing I ever make lasts this long. Anyhow, I noticed (and fixed) the problem in the end of chapter 4, I'd accidently said Jasper when I meant to say Peridot. Well, please enjoy this chapter everyone, and please review!

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Night once more descended on the town of beach city while the Gems talked amongst themselves. Shard had gotten bored, as he was apt to do when left alone with nothing to do for more than two minutes, so he decided to look around the house. Starting at Steven's room, he quickly found some video games. Did he really want to play these? If he did, there was no way Steven was going to get a high score again… Oh well, just one wouldn't hurt.

Several hours later, as dawn broke upon the land, the Gem's door finally opened. "Well, it's about time you got out," said Shard, not even looking away from his game. "It's been almost a day. Also, Steven, I searched the memory on these games, I unlocked a few secret levels on each of them…" Still not looking away from his game, he picked up the TV and carried it with him over to the Gems to answer their questions and find out where Lapis was, playing one-handed and still beating it. Once the plug on the TV came out he simply gave it a charge from himself to keep it on, similar to Garnet powering a different video game not so long ago.

Steven gaped at Shard, who, while still floating upside-down, declared that he'd been through all his games as he carried the TV with him around the room. No, he couldn't have. No-one could play upside-down and win, right? Maybe not, considering that he was at the last stage of the golfing game…

"Hey, just who do you think you are to be playing games while we're trying to ask you serious questions?" Pearl asked.

"I can listen and play." he replied. "Ooh, never mind, I just got it. Last game, beaten. End Credits… lame." He said as he shut it down. "Now what's on your collective mind? I don't have very much time right now, so make this as quick as possible."

As they had planned earlier, Garnet would ask the questions they had pre-determined to ask. Clearing her throat, she began. "Why were you on that ship?"

"I wanted Lapis."

"What do you want Lapis for?"

"Many things. Knowledge being one, help resisting the homeworld Gems another. That and the fact that she seems nice I didn't like seeing her being held captive and tortured. Where is she?"

"We'll answer in time. Do you know what kind of plans they others have regarding Earth?"

"Project Snap-Freeze is less than a year from completion. If it gets finished, so does Earth."

"What is project Snap-Freeze?"

"A secret kept by the Diamond Authority from all but a few of the most trusted and top scientists. The primary objective being the construction of a bomb powerful enough to freeze time in a planet-sided area. Stops the inhabitants from fighting back, and makes it incredibly easy to break through anything frozen. It would allow a single kindergarten to eat through a planet in less than an hour. Where's Lapis?"

"At the bottom of the sea…" Garnet said weakly, not believing what she had just heard. "Can you stop it?"

"That depends on three things. One: I find Lapis, Two: I find a way to get back to homeworld, and Three: I find a way to fight through the entirety of the most powerful army in the universe in order to get a chance at even seeing it. So, you know… about a forty-one percent chance of success. Bottom of the sea you say? Anything else you know about her, at all?"

"She's fused with Jasper."

"Well, I'm sure that's not mentally scarring for her at all… my last question now. How much of the crashed ship can you get cleaned up by the time I get back with Lapis?"

"You can't seriously think you're going to find her and overpower her, do you?"

"I don't think I'm going to need to overpower her. I've got something up my sleeve…" he said as he pulled the d-stabilizer back out of his pocket. "This should do nicely. Now, I'd suggest getting to work on the ship before some human gets hurt on it, I've got a friend to save."

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Sorry the chapter just doesn't seem very good. I have great ideas for later parts but the beginning is just really hard for me to figure out. Either way, I hope that all of you who like the story can forgive me for the bad chapters until I can actually get to a better part. Please review if you do happen to like this. Bye!


	6. What came from the crash 6

Welcome to chapter six, everyone! Please enjoy and review!

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A few hours of swimming deep under the ocean saw Shard approaching the crater in the ocean floor holding the monstrosity Lapis and Jasper had become on their fusion. Long black trench-coat still on his back producing tremendous drag, yet not tiring him in the least. Looking down into the crater he saw them, or it, depending on the point of view. The… _thing_… down there was still struggling against the watery chains holding it tight, but it was no use. The tremendous stamina Jasper had now fueled the perpetual imprisonment she was bound in.

_"I'm so sorry for what I have to do to you Lapis…" _Shard thought. _"But Jasper… I'm going to enjoy getting you."_

Jumping off his ring of safety into the crater, Shard ran at a surprising speed for being so deep underwater towards Malachite, a speed nearly as fast as a brisk jog would be on solid ground. At first he was not even seen due to the struggle Malachite was having against herself, but once at the edge of her arm, he jumped up and landed on it, bringing the full attention of the many eyes upon him. Grinning like a madman, Shard got a short running start, jumped forwards, and flung himself all the way from her wrist up to the top of her nose. Reaching into one of the many pockets hidden away inside his coat, he soon brought out the de-stabilizer. Still sporting his insane grin, he pointed it downwards and stabbed it as hard as was possible onto Jasper's gem.

The sudden massive loss of volume that accompanied Malachite separating and collapsing down into two little gems caused a huge implosion of water, pulling Shard and the two gems in separate directions as it scattered them across the crater on the ocean floor. Thankfully, Jasper's gem landed close by since it had been right next to Shard when Malachite broke apart, but Lapis' gem was now lost somewhere in the crater. Maybe he should have thought this though a little more… Well, it was nothing a half-hour of searching couldn't fix. So, he picked up Jasper's gem and placed it in its own special pocket in his coat, a special one designed to hold captured Gems in place of bubbling them, and then floated off to look for Lapis' gem.

Late that night, Shard walked up from the water onto the beach not far from Steven's house. Water began pouring out of his trench-coat as he walked, soon fully dry. Auto-drying clothing had been something of a necessity to him while he had been hiding on a very watery planet a long time back, so ever after inventing it he had made every article of clothing he had using the same tech. And so, Lapis' gem in hand and Jasper's in pocket, he made his way up to the temple door.

"Hello in there! It's Shard! Could someone let me inside? I have Jasper here and I think you should do with her what you see fit **before** she comes back out of her gem." He said as he knocked on the door. It wasn't long before the Gems arrived to let him in. After gently setting down Lapis' gem on the couch, he reached in to his coat and pulled out Jasper's. "Here ya go." he said as he tossed it to Garnet. "I'll be asleep on the couch if you need me before Steven wakes up in the morning. 'Night!"

After bubbling Jasper and sending her down into the depths of the temple, the other gems also went off to their beds. Shard picked up Lapis' gem and stretched out on the couch to get what sleep he could manage. Setting Lapis' gem down on his chest for safe-keeping, he soon left the waking world for the land of dreams. Unfortunately, his dreams that night were not to be pleasant, nightmares were on their way.

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Sorry for another short chapter everyone. The next one will hopefully be longer. Hope you enjoyed anyway! Bye!


	7. What came from the crash 7

Have no fear, chapter 7 is here! Please review everyone who gets to this chapter, I really need reviews. Also, fair warning, this chapter does start rather dark, but there will be light at the end of this tunnel. Anyhow, enjoy!

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Shard found himself floating in the inky blackness of space, far away from any planets or stars. All around him he could hear screams of terror and pain, and moans of absolute despair. Yet he could see no-one. Slowly, every so incredibly slowly, a group far in front of him began to appear. He knew these people. They were the last generation from his home planet, everyone he'd ever known back there, and the many others from there he'd never personally seen, but knew of. All of them were thin and boney, most of them had large scars and wounds, and a few were missing limbs.

"Shard!" They all cried out to him, their voices, long forgotten by time, blending into a single note. "You abandoned us! You left us to die!"

"No, that's not true!" he said as he shook his head, trying to block out the accusations.

"You went off to save your own skin, you never came back to fight!"

"No!" He replied, still refusing to listen.

"You were a coward! You ARE a coward. And now look at you, you're a MONSTER!"

"I'm not a monster! I came back!"

More beings approached from a different side. The inhabitants of the world he'd left to so he could become strong enough to defeat the Gems. Most of them were now nothing but shadows of the men and women they once were.

"Betrayer! You worked with us for years and when the time to save us came, you broke your promise! You didn't save our planet. We all trusted you!"

"I tried to save you! I wasn't strong enough yet!"

"Liar!"

More and more beings appeared around him, all from the many worlds he had lived on or near in his long life. And all accused him of one thing or another, all testifying to his failure to save them. The battered him down with distortions of his life, claiming he was not the hero he tried so hard to be. And to a degree, he knew it to be true. While he had always tried his best to save the many worlds he had come across, in the end they had all fallen under the deadly fist of the homeworld Gems. But now, a new group was approaching from the last side. While the many voices of the other races continued around him, everything slowed down as he saw these new people.

There was Pearl, Garnet, Amethyst, Steven, Lapis, and a whole crowd of humans behind. The humans were all very blurry as he had not met many of them yet, but the Gems… Beaten, broken, scratched up, and so very tired. All stared at him with disappointment and betrayal in their eyes.

"You've done this to us Shard. You let us down. Earth has fallen. What did you really think you could do, you let every planet you've ever been to die. You killed us all."

"That's not true! That can't be true! I've always done my best to save everyone!"

"Then you are just a weak failure. We should never have trusted you."

"How are you even gone?! I've only just come to your planet!"

"You've been the death of the others, and now you will be the death of us. You're nothing but a monster."

"I…, no, I can't be… I'm not a monster… not a monster…" he began to repeat to himself.

Now others appeared, but not as close. Off in the distance, surrounding him on all sides, were the giant heads of the many Gems that had caused the destruction around him. All of them began to laugh and mock him. All the others continued to batter him for his failures. Even after fading back into the darkness around him, their voices remained. A dark and very hot fire engulfed the horizon, slowly making its way towards him. As it passed the places the voices were coming from, they would all scream out, and then vanish back into the void. Soon the only ones who remained were Lapis and the Crystal Gems, a short distance away. The fire that was burning dark was getting close to even them, and was not long in reaching Shard himself. But then, Shard looked up at the Gems and the half Gem before him and stood.

"No. I may have failed to save several worlds before me, back before I became strong. But the Gem's trail of misery and destruction ends today. I will NOT let the Earth fall. You hear that world?! EARTH WILL SURVIVE!" he screamed at the darkness and the fire.

And as he said this, the fire died out, the Crystal Gems disappeared, and he fell. Right back down into the void below, down towards a little blue back-water planet in a small corner of the universe, Earth. Still falling, slower now, as he descended through the atmosphere, through the roof like a ghost, and landed back in his rightful body. And then, he woke up.

Taking back in his surroundings, he noted that it was early morning. Soon the others would be awake. He smiled. Looking down, he had a slight start as he saw that Lapis had healed and returned from her gem, although she was still asleep… curled up on his chest… maybe now would be a good time to start floating again… So he slowly floated off the couch while retaining his laying down position. Once a couple feet up, he gently wrapped his arms around Lapis and turned to the side until she was below him, then lowered her down to the couch. _"Now, to get something to eat…"_ he thought as he turned around, only to see Amethyst out of her room early and smirking at him.

"I bet someone slept well." she said.

"Sh-shut up Amethyst…"

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Woot! Done! So, how was my first dream chapter ever? I hope you all liked it. The next chapter will hopefully be out tomorrow, although no promises because sometime soon my computer had to have work done on it and I can't type while that's happening. Either way, I'll see you soon. BYE!


	8. What came from the crash 8

Chapter 8, and on a story with 1000+ views and at least 10 reviews? Sorry officer, I don't recognize this story, it can't possibly be mine. But wait, it is! Thank you everyone who reads this! Enjoy the chapter!

P.S. The events of "Joy Ride" took place with Steven and the Gems during the earlier part of the night that Shard was out in the ocean, just so you know.

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"Shard likes Lapis, Shard likes Lapis!" Amethyst chanted.

"Seriously, shut up! I don't need you waking everyone up yelling that! Besides, I was just trying to make sure she was comfortable. That's all."

"Suuuuuure you were…"

"Don't make me de-stabilize you."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Are you willing to risk it?"

"Uhhhhhm…. Fine, you win." Amethyst sighed in defeat. There really was no way to tell how far Shard would be willing to go to stop something that annoyed him. Another perk of being partially insane, bluffing was much easier.

"Now, help me make breakfast." Shard said.

"That wasn't part of the deal!"

Shard just shrugged and began to look though the refrigerator for something good to eat. Frozen waffles? Nah, they might taste good, but he wanted protein. Maybe some eggs? Yeah, eggs sounded good. So he got out some eggs and some cheese and began frying them up. Soon they were done and he set them out on a plate. Now, just wait for Steven, he should be getting up soon…

Almost an hour later, Steven still hadn't woken up, so Shard decided to eat without him. Maybe he'd been up all night and just needed some extra sleep. Amethyst had eaten her portion and ran off a good while ago to go do something with Pearl and Garnet, which left Shard alone at the table. Funny how he always seemed to end up alone even when other people were around… almost like the universe was trying to tell him something. His thoughts were interrupted soon enough though, as Lapis finally began to stir. _"Well, here we go…"_ he thought as he stood and made his way over to a chair near the couch.

The first thing Lapis felt as she awoke was that she was no longer fused with Jasper. But before she had time to really consider what that may entail, she realized she also wasn't under the ocean. She seemed to be on something… soft. That meant someone or something had moved her, and Jasper didn't seem to be the type to be kind to her after she'd imprisoned her, or, come to think of it, even if she'd helped her…

She opened her eyes slowly, and was greeted to the sight of a ceiling she remembered, although from where she could not tell. It was certainly not a place she remembered fondly though, that much she knew. She looked a bit to the left and saw the back of the couch she was on. Then she turned to the right to find a… strange man… starring at her. Not what she had expected.

"Wh-where am I? What have you done to me?" she asked hesitantly.

"I think you'll remember where soon enough. But as to the other question, I freed you. Jasper will not be bothering you or anyone else anymore. After I freed you I brought you back here so you could heal safely. Speaking of healing, are you feeling alright? You were out for a good while even after you came out of your gem."

"You were watching me sleep?" she half-screeched.

"No, no no no no… Well, mostly no. I just was noting the fact that you came out of the gem sometime while I was asleep, and that was a few hours ago. If anyone was watching you sleep, it would have been Amethyst. Oh shoot…"

_"Great job, now she thinks Amethyst was stalking her… Next time just shut up BEFORE you say something extra."_ Shard thought to himself. His signature smile still hadn't left his face though. It was all but permanently stuck there.

Considering the fact that whoever his man was had forcibly separated her from Jasper, and was now right in front of her and seemingly full of energy, running did not seem like a particularly good option. It still hung in her mind though, now that she knew where she was. She just hoped the other Crystal Gems weren't nearby or listening in…

"I suppose just letting me leave here isn't an option?" Lapis asked.

"Well, that depends on whether you plan to run away or just wish to be outside. I must warn you, I don't think running would be a very wise option even if you were fast enough to escape me. Returning to your homeworld without Peridot and Jasper would hold a one hundred percent chance of you being imprisoned again. And staying on Earth while running? No chance of being able to hide very long. What I'd really suggest is that you stay nearby for now. A storm is brewing, and soon nowhere will be safe from its shadow. And just to be clear I don't mean a literal storm with rain and lightning. Choose wisely."

Lapis was already planning on never going back to homeworld. And since she didn't really know much about the planet or any others nearby… it looked like she had only the one option. "What do you want me for?"

"I want you to help me become strong enough to put a stop to every kindergarten takeover the homeworld gems still have going or are going to attempt. It is time that the program reaches its end. And I plan on being the one to end it; I just need a Gem who can help me collect a few things from space to give me an upper edge."

"And what do I get from this?" she asked.

"The one thing you've wanted for the last several thousand years. Freedom. Freedom to do anything and go anywhere you want, with no chance of being trapped or tortured ever again. Something you can only have if the homeworld Gems are disposed from their current position of strongest in the universe. So what do you say, do we have a deal?" Shard asked as he extended his hand.

"No way…"

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Uh oh, this could end badly. But you'll have to read the next chapter if you want to find out what's happens next. Until next time, BYE!


	9. What came from the crash 9

Chapter 9 is here! I can't even believe it, I'm so close to a ten chapter story! Thank you everyone who reads this! Enjoy the chapter!

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"So what do you say, do we have a deal?" Shard asked as he held out his hand.

"No way…! When did Lapis get here?" Steven yelled from the top of the stairs. "Is that really you?!"

Lapis turned around to look at the half-Gem who was making his way down the stairs. She hadn't expected she was going to ever see him again. Of course, she hadn't been expecting to un-fuse from Jasper and come back on dry land again either, so it wasn't any stranger than anything else that had recently happened to her.

"Hey Steven, could you give us just a second real quick, I kind of just asked Lapis here an important question." Shard said, his hand still hanging in the air. "Do you accept?" he asked her again.

"I… I suppose I do…" Lapis said as she reached out and shook his hand.

"Glad to hear it." He said as his smile grew slightly bigger. "Looks like you have another new semi-permanent house-guest Steven. Lapis will be staying here until I've figured out a way to end the Kindergarten program."

"Woah…" Steven breathed the word out as his eyes assumed their star-shaped appearance. _"I can't believe it! We can have all sorts of fun adventures, and talk about gem stuff the others don't know about, and…"_ Steven's mind whirred with possibilities for what he could do now that Lapis was staying with them, but his thoughts were interrupted by Shard.

"Just stop thinking those kind of thoughts right now Steven, Lapis' primary objective during the next half-year or so is to help me to get a decent way out to the Gem homeworld that won't alert anyone there of my presence. Missions with you and the others will not be commonplace."

The day progressed slowly for Shard as he allowed Lapis to have the rest of the day to talk with Steven and the other Crystal Gems, although neither she or the others seemed very comfortable talking. But he knew the importance of relatively trusting relationships and lack of stress on productivity. In the meantime, he had an upgrade to install…

Deep down in a long forgotten room beneath the temple, Shard began his work. Every broken piece of the remaining Gem de-stabilizers that he could find were now laid out before him. The only one that seemed to have survived he had still in his trench coat. Many various sized chunks of broken warps were also around, plus several barriers and other pieces of the broken ship. Lastly, he had a few special tools with him, metalworking and soldering tools, and a few bits of circuit fabricators. With everything he needed for his next upgrade, he finally removed his coat.

After the coat was off, the shirt was next, leaving his chest and stomach exposed. With a heavy and somewhat pained groan, he began to pull his own chest open to reveal the machinery inside. He had said he'd been forced to add on to himself to survive… what he hadn't told was that about the only thing left of his original self was his mind, and even that was broken beyond repair. Everything else was fully robotic. Arms, legs, hands, feet, fingers, gut, head, brain, bones…, everything. It was all machines. Sitting right in his very core was his Gem. About twenty-five centimeters long and four thick at the widest portion in the center, tapering down to a fine point at the upper and lower ends, and held in place by claws, connectors, circuits, force-fields, and power couplings.

Piece by piece he removed various parts of his innermost mechanisms, using his tools to merge and connect some of the other materials from the ship into hidden ports. Warp crystals now were added to a small chamber holding a few other crystals designed for laser generation. The de-stabilizer parts were grafted into several different important energy links, and the working de-stabilizer was left intact and placed into a small slot he'd just made for it behind his Gem, merging its activation circuits with his second largest motherboard, and set to project its beam through and around his Gem. After several hours, the parts he had removed to get the others in were connected back over-top of the new ones. Upgrade complete. He was now capable of self-repair of his Gem, along with a few other abilities that would prove useful later. Time to get back to the others. Maybe once this was all done he could try to live a 'normal' life, and try to forget the horrors he'd put himself through for the last 3,500 years in the name of saving the lives of anyone he could… Someday….

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Well, that's it for now. Shard's past is not a pretty one, is it? But, that's life for you. Hope to see you soon everyone, next chapter out on Sunday or Monday. See you soon!


	10. What came from the crash 10

I can't believe it! 10 chapters! I'm so excited that I'm tempted to skip my shout-out to the first guest review, but I won't. Just so you know, guest person, I actually was thinking of something along the lines of what you said, but only if I can figure out how to do it without breaking the story. Anyhow, on to the show!

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The sun was now beginning to set out on the waters surrounding Beach City. The gentle blue of the sky was slowly darkening, stretching the shadows casted by buildings, cars, rocks, and people into long, blurred lines reaching far from their source. The night was not to bring calm and silence this day however. For out on the horizon yet another Gem monster was appearing…

The Crystal Gems, on finding that a monster was approaching the city, sprang into action. Shard had not returned yet, so they left Steven to talk with Lapis while they went after it. As the beast neared the city, rounding some of the large hills behind the city, its full figure was revealed. The monster was nearly as long as the temple was tall on the outside, and sported a Gem of Sphalerite embedded in its neck. The relatively small head contained a single eye, which darted back and forth, apparently searching for something. The body of the creature was little more than a flattened oval, similar to an insect, and it had twenty-six long spindly legs which rapidly moved across the ground. The most dangerous thing about this particular monster was the warm glow of fire, which sprouted from the entire surface of the beast's back, although only burning in flames of a few inches high at most.

Several minutes after the Gems had left, Shard finally surfaced from the depths of the temple's catacombs, once again wearing his shirt and trench coat. "Where have the others gone?" he questioned.

"Oh, they went out after a gem-monster thing, they probably have it nearly beat by now." Steven said.

"They probably have it beat, you say?" Shard said as he walked over to the window to determine why the sky was still so bright and orange at this time of the somewhat early night. "Well, I guess that Pearl and Amethyst are now an Opal and still losing because they're playing with it… Maybe we should head out there and see if they need a little help… Who's coming out there with me?" he said as he made his way to the door.

Steven and Lapis both hurried over. Steven because he wanted to help the Gems, and Lapis more because she didn't want the only place she had to stay being destroyed… also to make sure Steven stayed safe. Once they were outside Shard followed and closed the door behind him.

"You two will have to find your own way to the fight, I need to get over there now to stop that thing from burning the city to a crisp." Shard said as he began to fly towards the creature at a rather high speed. Once he was above the middle of its back he dropped down onto it, unhurt by the fire thanks to his robotic body. Had it been a really hot fire it may have been somewhat worse, but this fire was quite cool compared to most other fires, although still far too warm for a human to touch. Once he was 'safely' on its back, Shard began to summon his weapon. Although his gem was stored deep in his core, he had many microscopic glass-like crystal plates, no bigger than speck of dust, covering and interfused with every square inch of his body's surface. Any and all of them could be used to pull the weapon or any of his gem's power from, giving him another advantage over a natural Gem.

Once the very long and broad blade of his sword was free, he pointed it down and set the tip on the creature's back, then began to push it down in. The monster howled in pain, fury, and confusion at what could be hurting it there, it had only seen the Crystal Gems so far, and they were still in its line of sight. But unfortunately, the wound was not even close to fatal. So Shard made his way further up the back and tried again, with no more success than the last time. _Where is this thing's gem?"_ he thought to himself. After a few more tries, after all of which the creature desperately tried to throw him off, and also after all of which he stubbornly stayed on, Shard jumped down to join the other Crystal gems, along with Lapis and Steven who had finally gotten to them.

"Where is its gem?" he asked before giving any explanation of where he had come from.

"It's in the beast's neck!" Garnet told him.

"Got it. Steven, take this and use it to defend yourself in case one of those spiked legs comes through." Shard said as he handed Steven his sword. "Opal, see if you can get it to look up long enough for me to get close to the gem." he commanded. As Opal obeyed and jumped up high above it while continuing to shoot in in quick bursts with magic arrows, Shard flew straight up to its neck and began looking for the nearly buried gem.

_"Ha, found you!"_ he thought as he finally found it. He reached in and grabbed a firm hold of it, and concentrated on using the power of his latest upgrade… Soon de-stabilization energy from the working de-stabilizer inside him made its way to his hand, which he channeled into the Sphalerite crystal in his grasp. The characteristic yellow energy seeped through the beast's body for several long seconds, before finally the creature disintegrated and collapsed back into the gem to heal. Once it was safely trapped, Shard stopped de-stabilizing it. No sense hurting it while it was defenseless.

"Here you go, one currently healing Sphalerite." He said as he tossed it to Garnet for bubbling. "Now, we just have to deal with the minor damage it did."

Behind him stood the 'minor' damage… craters, holes, smashed streets in half the city, and stray fires burning on the tops of a few buildings. Yeah… now all that was left was to fix this…

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Well, I hope you liked this first real fight chapter. Please review and tell me how I did, and how I can do better. See you soon!


	11. What came from the crash 11

I don't have much to say before this, so I'm just going to head right in. Enjoy!

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"Alright, this was fun and all," said Shard as he finished putting out one of the last fires, "but we really need to start working towards the bigger goal here. Project Snap-Freeze isn't going to destroy itself. Lapis, it is about time that you come and help me find the first object I need to leave this world. Everyone else, you can continue your work on fixing the town. You should be able to do that easily enough, right?"

The Crystal Gems all nodded, except Steven who had to return to the house to get some sleep, it was the middle of the night after all.

"Good. Now, let me think… the first thing I need is going to be the remains of Peridot's escape pod, wherever that is. I have no idea if she's still around it, but even if it's broken I can still harvest some of the parts." he said. "So, are you ready to go Lapis?"

"Yes, I guess I am. Where are we looking?" she replied while growing her wings into flying position.

"Off this way, to the North-West. Let's do this!" Shard said as he jumped into the air. Not bothering to come back down, he simply turned towards the direction it seemed the ship would be, and began floating off at high speeds. "Oh, and you three," he shouted over his shoulder to the Crystal Gems, who were already a decent distance behind, "Maybe you should take that sword I summoned away from Steven, it isn't exactly stable!"

Whether or not they had heard him, Shard did not know. He also didn't really care too much either. At most it would destroy itself and leave Steven with some relatively minor bruises, which would probably heal within a few days at most. At best, the sword would remain intact until he came back and re-absorbed it. Either way, no lasting harm would be done, and a little pain now and then would only serve to prepare Steven for the darkening future that lay ahead of them.

Shard looked over at Lapis for a few seconds as they flew over the ground, admiring her wings without saying anything. To the best of his knowledge, she wasn't even aware of his watching her. Her form was one of beauty; a form that he would never have. He was nothing more than a machine designed by his own hand, made to protect, not to look good. He turned his attention back to the ground looking for a crater. Acceptance was over-rated anyway… If only he could make himself believe it.

Lapis noticed Shard looking at her every so often, but decided not to say anything. He never looked too obviously at her, and she would hate to accuse him of starring at her, especially if it turned out he just happened to be looking for the pod in her general direction. Any yet, she couldn't quite shake the feeling that it really was her that he was watching. After several hours of flying, the sun rose, making locating the pod all the harder. But Shard seemed intent on finding it as soon as possible and showed no signs of stopping, so they continued to fly on.

After a long enough time of traveling, Shard determined that the pod could not have landed farther away than they currently were. Thus, they would have to go back and start out in a different direction. Oh joy…

Much later, the duo found what they were looking for. As night once again fell upon the world, a green crater in a corn-field caught their attention, and they soon had landed in its center. Sure enough, the pod was there, albeit beaten up a good bit.

"Alright, we've found the prize. Now to get at what is inside… Lapis, this is where you come in. It needs a natural Gem within it in order to access the various extra-dimensional chambers. So, if you would…" Shard said as he turned it enough for the entrance to no longer be in the ground.

Lapis climbed inside the pod and began focusing on ordering it to open up as if for repairs, although in this case repairing it was the last thing on either of their minds. Sure enough, eventually a large number of thin chambers rose to the surface of the pod and opened. Each of the chambers contained various parts the pod needed to operate. Only a few of them interested Shard. After removing them, he helped Lapis out of the pod, then lifted it up and threw it into the sky. A few seconds later, he shot a few spear-like bolts of Anti-Gem energy up at it through his hands. Once it no longer held objects he needed, it was much safer destroyed. Needless to say, this did nothing to decrease the timidity Lapis felt around him…

By the time they had returned to the temple with the parts, it had been nearly two days since they had left. But strangely, all the inhabitants of Beach City, along with the Crystal Gems and Steven, were nowhere to be found. The only noise in the city was coming from deep in the underground area of the temple. Slowly they made their way towards the noise, being careful to avoid making any themselves. And then they saw the reason for the silence. For there, standing with her back turned to them, was Peridot, with a barely working Gem de-stabilizer in her hand and four gems on the ground around her.

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Well, what a lovely surprise… I hope nothing majorly bad is about to happen… *Evil troll face appears.* And, just in time to help lengthen this cliff-hanger, my computer may be being worked on for a good part of this week. So, the next chapter may not be up for the next several days. But, I hope to see you all then. Bye!


	12. What came from the crash 12 part 1

Ok, well I have the computer a little while longer apparently, it couldn't be fixed today… but, once it does go it will still be about a week before I can make the next chapter. Also, I wanted to do something very different in the last chapter but couldn't figure out how, so as a result Peridot is more on the evil side than I had originally planned. Hope you continue to enjoy the story anyway.

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Lapis and Shard watched Peridot as she reached down to pick up the Crystal Gems, well, gems. She stuffed them in a small pouch she was carrying, and then began to lift up something from just out of sight. As Shard and Lapis continued to look around, they saw that the citizens of Beach city were all tied and bubbled together in a very far corner of the room. So that's where they had gone… But what really scared Lapis was who she saw Peridot picking up. There draped across her shoulder was Shard, albeit apparently unconscious…

Shard also saw this and was not happy. He quickly put his hand to Lapis mouth and pulled her back around the corner to prevent them from being seen. And just like the him that Peridot was carrying, he had lost his smile. That was never a good sign. Removing his hand from Lapis' mouth, he quickly whispered an order. "That other me down there is a very bad thing… you cannot begin to imagine what has to have been going to happen to get me to be that me. Don't think too hard about the tense of that last sentence… Anyway, I have a plan to save us and the others, but you aren't going to like it. So please, just trust me that this is the only way to keep you safe…" he pleaded while starring at her.

"Why, what are you going to…" she began.

"I'm sorry." he said so quietly she could barely hear him as he gave her a shove out into the open and right into the view of Peridot. As soon as he was sure Peridot had seen her, he made an invisible energy barrier to prevent Lapis from escaping. She turned and looked at him with betrayal in her eyes; he just lowered his head and began to walk away. Picking up speed slightly until he was moving at a fast jog pace, he rounded a corner and was soon vanished in the maze that was the under-belly of the temple.

"You!" Peridot yelled at Lapis. "Jasper has been overworking me all day thanks to you making her so mad! Now you are going to pay for that." she threatened. She didn't give her much time to respond either; she threw the de-stabilizer at her and let it pierce through her, forcing her back into her gem and using up what little power it had left. Grumbling to herself, climbed the stairs and grabbed Lapis' gem, sticking it into the pouch with the other gems. She continued onwards, and didn't notice that the supposedly unconscious Shard she was carrying had reached in and grabbed Ruby's gem from the pouch, being careful not to be seen doing so. With his last few seconds awake he threw it down a side branch-off from the path Peridot was walking down. It didn't make a sound from hitting the ground.

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Yes, this is a short chapter. The next one will also be short. They together are my first two-part chapter. Be watching for it tomorrow. See you then!


	13. What came from the crash 12 part 2

And here we are, part 2 of 3 for this chapter. Later on I will be merging all three parts into a single chapter 12. Anyhow, please enjoy, and don't forget to review!

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Ruby's gem flew at him from the hall, thrown by, well, himself. Without making any more noise than absolutely necessary, Shard jumped for it and managed to keep it from hitting the ground. The sound it would have made would surely have attracted Peridot's attention. Now that he had the gem, he could get back to diagnostics… Listening in and scanning the core and more important parts of the under-temple. What he found explained everything…

_"No, she can't be! Well, maybe it could… Peridot hadn't shown much mercy earlier before the ship was destroyed, and Jasper seemed much more likely to have wanted this. One more scan, just to be sure…"_ he thought. Soon the results came in. _"I should have known. They've rigged the entire place to overload. The entirety of the temple being converted into explosive force, that much energy could wipe a small county off the map!"_

All that energy, and what would it be used for? A quick look at energy directional readings showed that as much of the power as possible would be forced through the warp pad towards the galaxy warp. Even a small portion of that energy would be enough to allow the warp to repair itself without the strange gem fluid… But all the people were down here, and most of the bubbled Gems… Truly Jasper and Peridot did not care what happened to anyone but themselves. And with the fact that Peridot was leaving meant that everything would be activating any second now!

Shard had to hurry if he wanted to get the people out in time… He ran out into the hallway and down the stairs, straight at the bubbled group of people. He grabbed the bubble and popped it, then untied some of the strongest people before once again bubbling them all and sending it out into the middle of the town. Those who now were free could untie the others, and together they could pop the bubble and leave. Now on to the Gem monsters… herding them together, he put a new bubble layer over all of them, then another and another, until ten full layers covered them all. There was no telling what could happen if those got out while no-one was on Earth to stop them.

Then, he made his way to the very heart of the temple and opened his chest slightly, exposing a thin entrance for light and energy to flow to and from his gem. Grabbing hold of some of the largest energy pillars, which connected right to the temple heart, he waited. Less than a minute later, the entirety of everything crystalline within the temple began to glow, brighter and brighter as every possible bit of energy was forced to build up in them. Once the surge started, Shard began channeling it all towards himself. Huge portions of the energy collapsed back into him and were absorbed by his gem as it rapidly grew hotter. Finally, the temple exploded, leaving a decent crater with Shard near the bottom.

Looking up, he saw the remains of a white beam shooting off into space from a point a long ways across the horizon. They had left…, and he would not be catching them until a much more painful process was done. And, unfortunately for him, all the energy he had absorbed had to be forced into his energy converters to drain it all, which would have been fine in small amounts, but mixed with the antimatter's negative energy, it cracked and dissolved chunks out of his gem, leaving Shard incredibly weak and un-stable. But his job was not over yet. He had saved the city and the creatures and people by drawing most of the power into himself, but he still had the Crystal Gems, Steven, and Lapis to save. He first carved a small note into a board from one of the walls, and then tossed Ruby's gem out into the sand a decent way off from the explosion site along with it.

Now his last move, he had to get this right… it had been nearly a half-century since he had last done it, and it took a huge amount of power and concentration to do. Thankfully, what he was currently missing in concentration, he made up for in the huge amount of power he had absorbed, although he had better work quickly before it destroyed him from the inside-out. And so he closed up his chest and began to focus on a point not long ago… bending, twisting, turning, he fell back though time at the same point in space, until he landed in the temple a few minutes before his past self was to arrive. He made his way down to where Peridot had just freed Jasper, who then began yelling at her for all the things she was really upset at Lapis for. Once she left, he stumbled out and challenged Peridot to a fight for the people and Gems that she had just captured. And, although it hurt his pride, he lost very quickly, the short jump back in time had destroyed what energy he had, and with his gem broken he couldn't generate more. And thus, lying on the ground nearing unconsciousness, he waited for his brief window to steal and throw Ruby's gem before he would inevitably pass out yet again.

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No, Shard is not a time traveler, and no, you can't have spoilers for the next chapter(s) to find out what's happening. Yes, this and the last couple chapters aren't my best work… but I couldn't figure out how to continue the story a better way, so this is what I've got. Anyways, I hope anyone who reads this far doesn't mind slightly lower quality chapters until I get back on track, although I promise I'll still do my best to make them at least good. Anyhow, see you soon!


	14. What came from the crash 12 part 3

And yay, I am finally back with a new chapter! Now, I have some good news and some bad news regarding this story. No longer will the chapters be one every 1-2 days, but will be out once every 2 days for about two weeks at a time, and then have an off week between every 13th chapter. Which means the first one of those breaks will be soon. The reason is simply that I have lots of work, both school and actual work, and can't write enough to be posting every day or so. But on the bright side, when I am putting them out you won't have to worry about having huge breaks between every few chapters. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this new chapter!

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After being dragged to homeworld, Steven, Shard, Sapphire, Amethyst, and Pearl were all taken to one of Yellow Diamond's buildings. Once they were there, Steven and Shard's unconscious forms were thrown on the ground, the gems of the others were then dropped on top of them. After a long time waiting, Yellow Diamond came in to decide the fate of the traitors. Her towering form was very strong, enough to scare even Jasper, but when she saw Shard lying on the ground she stopped dead in her tracks.

"What is HE doing here? How did you find that... that MONSTER." she demanded of Jasper and Peridot, who both stood shaking before her.

"We, well, we found him on Earth, along with the other traitors. Apparently he thought he could help them fend us off, but he wasn't much trouble..." Peridot managed to say without stumbling too badly over her words.

"Wasn't any trouble?!" Yellow Diamond thundered. "That freak has been the bane of homeworld for millennia now! He singlehandedly took out the entirety of the Spinel Army! That was the second strongest best group of one hundred warriors we've ever created, and he took them all on and won! He's been hunted ever since. So tell me, how is it that you managed to beat him, really?"

"I-it's true though, he... he challenged me to a fight for the traitors, and then he collapsed after only about two minutes of fighting..." Peridot timidly stated. She looked sideways over at Shard, not believing what she had heard. She knew the stories of the stranger who had beaten the Spinel Army, nearly everyone on homeworld did, but to think she had been in a fight with him, and WON! Something must have been attacking him beforehand, for him to fall so quickly. What could have done such a thing she did not want to know...

Jasper also looked at Shard, wondering how such a mighty villain from old Gem fairy-tales could be real, and how a weakling like Peridot could have beaten him.

Yellow Diamond had been prepared to inflict some major damage on the two incompetent fools in front of her for loosing a ship to a bunch of weakling traitors, but now with one of homeworld's all-time greatest enemies lying unconscious on the floor, she would have to wait and find something else to chew them out for. But for now, she knew what she had to do. "Take all of them to the strongest jail cells on this level of the planet, keep them next to each other but not in the same cell. And get lots of chains, forcefields, and guards on the freak. If he escapes because of a failure on your parts, neither of you will live to regret it." she spat out at them.

"Y-yes, ma-am." Jasper stuttered out as she helped Peridot pick up the traitors. The last time she had failed Yellow Diamond her gem had been cracked very carefully, in such a way as to cause lots of pain without killing her. Eventually her gem was repaired and she was brought back, but she was promised that another slip-up would end with her becoming gem dust...

Once they were out of the room and long on their way to one of Homeworld's strongest jails, Jasper spoke up again. "It's a good thing we found this guy, otherwise we'd be dead for loosing the ruby..."

"Wait, what?" Peridot said. "The ruby should be right..." she paused as she noticed Ruby's gem wasn't there. "Eep!..." Then, after a slight pause, she made a lst comment as they arrived at the cells. "I guess it really is a good thing we found him..."

Back in her private quarters, Yellow Diamond picked up a very special communicator... much as she didn't want to, it was agreed on what must be done should the dark one ever be found. It was time to call the other Diamonds...

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Woot! Chapter 12 part 3 is done, and I have decided not to merge them all into a single chapter. Chapter 13 is coming out soon, and will end the first arc of the story. See you there soon!


	15. What came from the crash 13

Hello everyone who has decided to read this far! If you are reading this, thank you so much! I can't tell you how much I appreciate every view and ESPECIALLY review that I have gotten. Anyhow, this is the last chapter for the first arc of the story. Hope you enjoy!

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Gradually Shard opened his eyes, letting the bright lights seep in to his slowly clearing vision. It had been nearly a full day since he had been put into the cell he was currently in, and this was his first time waking up while inside it. His arms and legs had about a half-dozen very strong half-foot long chains on each one of them, most made of advanced metal alloys, and a few made of forcefields; all of them connecting into the wall behind him. His feet rested on a platform about a foot above the floor, and bolted to it were two metal shoes, which his feet had been put into. Around his waist was a curved metal bar with both ends fused into the wall his back was against. A collar of some crystalline material was around his neck. The wall itself was about ten feet thick, and made of something far stronger than steel. The Gem-shocking door had been replaced with several layers of extra-strong force-fields.

_"Looks like someone doesn't want me leaving, for whatever odd reason..."_ he thought, sarcasm dripping from his mind's voice. Looking to the sides was only mildly difficult, so he surveyed the other surroundings. In the cell to the left of him sat Pearl, to the right was Amethyst, in front of him was Steven. To the front and the left, he could just barely see Sapphire, who seemed to be quite sad at being unable to locate Ruby in any of the nearby cells. To the front and right was Lapis. Of all the others, Steven was the only one actually in chains, since without him the others couldn't get through the Gam-Shocking doors. Or, make it chain, as only a single chain of a few feet in length actually bound one of his legs to the wall. Not being nearly as physically strong, it would do more than enough to prevent his escape. A small group of guards was visible closer to each end of the hallway that connected the doors of the various cells.

Several hours later, a new guard approached and carefully opened the other prisoners' doors one at a time and dumped them all into Shard's cell. Apparently an update had arrived from one of the Diamonds commanding it.

Now in the same cell and close enough together to hear each other, Shard spoke up. "Well, what a pleasant reunion!" he said as his signature grin re-appeared. "Looks like things are finally looking up for us!"

"What are you talking about?!" Pearl demanded. "This is the most helpless we've ever been!"

Shard just began laughing an insane little laugh, not really evil or mean or scary, just the laugh of someone who seemed to have lost their mind. "Oh, yes! Helpless as little human infants! Even I, stuck to this wall, with my gem far to damaged to provide strength beyond a human's of my own size! We're TOTALLY in trouble now. Hehehehe... oh, but wait! Even now, the advantage is still ours! Hahaha... We wanted to get to homeworld, and guess where we are? That's right, we made it a half-year ahead of schedule!" he said as he continued laughing. None of the other Gems, or the half-Gem, seemed very amused however.

"How can you be so happy?!" Lapis yelled at him. "You betrayed me and got both of us dragged here, and in case you didn't notice, WE CAN"T GET OUT OF THIS CELL!"

"That's the best part! WE don't need to leave the cell! Only one of us need to get out, and the others can be free! From the moment we saw that other me down in the temple, I knew something like this was coming, which is why I made sure to find a way to get us all out. And I didn't betray you, I just took the only option available to me that made sure hundreds of innocent lives weren't destroyed. You'll be out of this cell in no time!" he said, his smile never leaving him. "All you have to do is promise!"

"Promise what?" Steven asked.

"That after you see what I'm about to reveal, you'll remember that I'm just a regular, albeit somewhat insane, guy, and not a monster. That's not so much to ask, now is it?" he said, with ALMOST the tiniest little speck of fear hidden deep down in his voice.

"Why would we think you're a monster? You're nice." Steven asked.

"What I'm really like on the inside is not what most people expect is all..." Shard replied. "Speaking of which, that's what I need opened. Would you mind Steven?"

"Mind what?"

Before Shard could respond back, lots of yelling could be heard far down the hallway. The Diamonds had come for him, and would be there in about two minutes.

"Shoot! No, no, no! We should've had more time!" Shard cried. Then, his mind going into overdrive, he stopped his panic and regained his smile, which he had only lost for a second or so. "Quickly, before they get here! Someone grab the front of my shirt and rip it off! If we don't get done before they arrive there's going to be pearl, amethyst, lapis, sapphire, and rose quartz dust all over this room... HURRY!"

The others took a second before all grabbing at his shirt and ripping it to pieces. Shard then began concentrating and soon had a small blue line running down the middle of his chest and gut. He had Steven open his chest up like when he had upgraded himself not so long ago. All of them scrambled back once they saw Shard's core.

"Wh-what are you?!" Pearl demanded of him as they all moved away into the corner.

"There's no time for this! This is what I am, a machine! My original body was destroyed ages ago! But even as a machine I still stand against the corruptions of homeworld. I'd never hurt anyone else. Now collapse into your gems, we've got less than a minute before the Diamonds are here!" he said, his voice rising constantly. Unfortunately, the others were still held back by their fear. Even though it pained him to do it, both figuratively AND literally, he had to act. With one big pulse from the de-stabilizer, which ate up even more of his limited energy, all the others except Steven were forced back into their gems.

Just in time, he managed to get the even more scared Steven to put all the gems into a chamber next to his core and close his chest back up. Then the Diamonds were there, standing in front of the many doors to his cell. Brown and Yellow Diamonds, the runts of their family, Clear, White, and Black Diamonds, the best known ones, Green, Pink and Blue Diamond, and even the largest and most dangerous Gem to ever exist, Red Diamond herself. Even Yellow diamond towered above any non-Diamond, and next to the others she was nothing more than a tiny weakling.

This was NOT going to be pleasant...

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A lot just went down here, and a lot more will follow in just over a week. I hope you all like the chapter and PLEASE, PLEASE comment and let me know how you've enjoyed this first section of the story. See you soon. BYE!


	16. The decent into darkness 1

Hello everyone! I am back from my break and I have some great ideas for the story, yay! Anyhow, the story is taking a big turn and is going to be switching between viewpoints a lot in the next several chapters, but don't worry; It'll all make sense in the end. Also, thank you so much to everyone who reads and especially comments! Every time I see that I new comment has appeared it makes me so happy that I want to start on the next chapter right away, so thank you all! Enjoy!

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The dust sifted down through the air slowly, causing the thin beams of light shining down into the darkness to become even more visible. Pearl, Amethyst and Sapphire had all just awakened suddenly, and found themselves buried under some of the debris of the crashed ship that had carried Peridot, Jasper, and Lapis to Earth. It must have been all a bad dream they'd had, although they usually didn't dream even when they went unconscious... but it was shrugged off as a result of the strangeness that had accompanied the return of homeworld Gems to Earth after being gone for so long. Still, something didn't seem quite right...

Dusting themselves off and breaking a way out of the wreckage, they found that it was late in the night, with the full moon shining brightly overhead. The beach house still stood in its usual position, and although they didn't go into the city, it looked fine from a slight distance. Slowly they began to move a few more ship parts around before heading towards the house. Then, off in the distance the flair from Peridot's escape pod was seen. Weird, that had happened in the dream too... but in the dream something was lurking, something which struck fear into their very cores.

Suddenly, the lights inside turned on and the white glow of the warp pad could just barely be seen. As it faded, they found the sudden desire to find out what was going on, which, thinking back, had strangely not been with them when the pod's signal went off or when the pad first began to activate. But it didn't last long, because all of a sudden the moon and stars jumped forwards almost a quarter of the way across the sky, and they found themselves much close to the door than before. They also heard a strange sound coming from the ocean, but once again the strange disinterest in seemingly important events crept over them. The lights inside suddenly turned off, and the sound of the Gem's doors closing could be heard. The spell of disinterest once more gone, they ran inside and saw Shard lying down on the couch with Lapis gem lying on his chest... exactly as it had been in their dream.

But now they were very afraid. The monster of a... thing... that they had dreamed of was right there in front of them, lying on the couch. His terrifyingly ever-present smile was still on his face, although, rather small at the moment. In fact, his expression was more troubled than anything else. The Gems quickly began to debate with each other.

"He's a MONSTER!" Pearl said.

"It did seem kinda like he betrayed us." Amethyst said.

They went on and on about what they remembered about him and whether they should kick him out or not. None of them noticed that shortly after they had come in, Lapis had also come in behind them. But unlike them, she didn't speak. She simply stared at Shard, sleeping with her gem on his chest. After staring for while, she slowly looked over at the arguing Crystal Gems near her. Strange that none of them had seemed to notice her yet, or that she hadn't noticed them... Suddenly they all looked over at Shard again. She turned back to look at him as well, and now she was even more embarrassed. Because lying right on top of him was, well, her. And even worse, she seemed to be cuddling up against him. There was no amount of blue in all the ocean to describe how deeply she was blushing right now. Or at least, the her that wasn't next to Shard...

Suddenly all of them that were awake there turned and looked at the door which had just been flung open. Standing right in the middle of it and framed with the setting moon behind him, was Shard. He did not look very happy, which was strange considering he still had that stupid smile on his face. And behind him was... another Shard? And two more? This day had just gone from confusing to a complete and total mental meltdown. Before they had the chance to process any of what was happening, the Shards strode forwards and each one laid a hand gently on the shoulder of one of them. No longer were they in the beach house, but in a very long hallway with literally millions of doors along the sides, almost all closed but for a few far off in the distance. The Shards no longer stood next to them, but a strange light was glowing down at the far end of the hallway. Everything behind them had grown dark, and the darkness seemed to be creeping up on them. They tried moving forwards, and the darkness followed. A few more tries and the darkness was moving ever-faster towards them. They all looked at each other for a split-second, then took off down the seemingly endless hallway towards the light.

Meanwhile, a confused Ruby woke up on the beach outside a huge crater where the beach house had used to be. Next to her was a board with some writing on in. But all she cared about was one thing. Where was Sapphire?!

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So, what has happened to everyone? You'll have to read on to find out, but feel free to, (and in fact please do), leave your comments along with a guess as to what is going on. Either way, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and until next time, bye!


	17. The decent into darkness 2

Yeah, next chapter! No time for an author's note here, so: ENJOY!

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Down the hallway the Crystal Gems and Lapis continued to run. The darkness kept chasing them, never quite catching up, but also never getting further behind. A door that had previously been closed now suddenly opened just ahead of them, and at its opening the darkness ceased moving forwards. The Gems weren't sure whether to go in or not, but when it closed slightly, the darkness began to creep forwards again, so they decided it was probably for the best. So, they gathered their collective nerve and jumped in, the door slamming shut behind them...

Out in the chamber, the Diamonds towered over Shard and Steven. The largest and most powerful of any homeworld gem to ever live, Red Diamond, was nearly as big as Alexandrite, even though she was not a fusion, and her gem was nearly twice as big as Steven's head. Even Brown Diamond and Yellow Diamond were slightly bigger than Sugilite, though they were the smallest of the Diamonds. At his strongest, Shard would have been more than a match for Red Diamond, and if he were to fight against all the Diamonds at once, he might have been able to about equal them. The largest group he ever took out was the Spinel Army, which held 100 members slightly over twice the size of Jasper, and he was able to overcome them after several days straight of fighting. But weakened as he was now, even a young Zircron could have beaten him up. And those things were only barely stronger than Steven!

"Where are the others!" Blue Diamond roared at the guards. "We commanded them to be brought into this cell!"

"My... My apologies sir... but... we... we did put them in..." The guard stammered out, shaking the whole time.

Blue Diamond turned to Shard and moved close. Soon he wrapped one of his hands around Shard's neck, and applied enough pressure to crush solid steel a half-meter thick. Shard's neck didn't break, but it was certainly not comfortable... "Where are the others!" He yelled at him.

"I freed them." He replied. "You didn't honestly think I would let them be hurt just because I happened to be around when I was found, did you?"

Blue Diamond was very angry at this, as were the other Diamonds. He pressed Shard against the wall even harder. "What about that one?" He said as he gestured over at Steven. "Just didn't care about him?"

"He's not a Gem, I couldn't free him the same way. Besides, he's not even two and a half years old, it's not like he'll remember anything that happened here after you're done brainwashing him."

"Actually I'm twelve..." Steven timidly interjected.

"Not Earth years Steven, Gem homeworld years. They're just over 4.5 Earth years." Shard replied before any of the homeworld Gems could say anything.

The Diamonds didn't take much longer to question Shard. A few minutes later, they knew all he was ready to tell them. It was now time to break him. He was removed from the wall and, while kept in many chains, was dragged out to a warp pad, which brought him and the Diamonds to one of homeworld's three moons. This particular one had been transformed nearly ten millennia back for the sole use of the Diamonds. After all, they needed plenty of space to attack, torture, and crush anyone they were particularly displeased with. Steven was brought along too, with his single chain and a guard to watch him. The Diamonds wanted to be sure this 'Steven' knew what happened to those that went against their wishes...

Meanwhile, in the room that Lapis and the Crystal Gems had found their way into, even less was making sense than it had been a few minutes ago. They now found themselves just outside of the temple, and the huge Sphalerite they had fought with Shard was back in the city, rampaging and attempting to burn everything around it. What was much more strange was the fact that off beyond it, they saw themselves fighting it. Actually, they saw Pearl, Amethyst, and Garnet fighting it. Finally they realized what they had been forgetting. Sapphire was here alone, and was most certainly not part of Garnet right now. Before they had a chance to think about that, a strange sound from inside caught their attention. They turned around to face the door and whatever was coming out of it. But just before the door began to slowly open, the four Shards that had moved them not so long ago once more appeared. Grabbing the Gem's shoulders, the world around them as well as the other Shards dissolved away, leaving them back in the hallway, this time a short distance ahead of the light rather than right next to it. With the doors all closed and not wanting to open, it looked like it was time for some more running...

Back on Earth, Ruby had finished her panic. It hadn't taken too long, no more than ten minutes, before she was calm enough, not to mention curious enough, to look at the writing on the board. She studied it for a while. Then, she set it down and began pacing for a few seconds. Soon she picked it back up and read it again. After reading it though the second time, she threw it into the crater and stormed off through the city towards the forest. The sun set, and still she walked. She was determined to reach the kindergarten before the end of the next day.

Down in the bottom of the still-smoking crater, a piece of wood sat, writing covering one side. Its message: "Ruby. It wasn't a dream. They have your team, and they have Sapphire. If you find this, get to the Galaxy warp as soon as you possibly can. Stay on that pad as if your life depends on it, and above all else, MAKE SURE that your gem is touching it. It may be weeks or months before you see us again, but if you ever want to see Sapphire alive again, stay there. -Shard." A chunk of what used to be the couch soon caught fire to the wood, destroying the message forever. All that could be done now was hope that its message was followed.

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So, what did you all think? I hope you all liked this chapter, and believe me, I had fun writing it. Again, I'm not going to tell anyone any spoilers ahead of time, so don't bother asking for them. But DO comment and leave your guesses as to what will happen next. Anyhow, I'll see you all next time. BYE!


	18. The decent into darkness 3

Today was awesome! School ended early and I have extra time to write, so this (and potentially the next) chapters are coming out early! Yay! Anyhow, this chapter is a little (read: not a lot, but not just a tiny bit) on the darker side, as the Diamonds take their turns beating up Shard, so be warned for that. But enough stalling, on to the chapter. Have fun!

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Out on the third moon of homeworld, or as it was actually named: Geminius Prime, a young half-human boy from Earth was made to watch as a kind but currently defenseless ally was being harmed for daring to help those in need. Much as he wanted to look away, the guard assigned to watch him made sure he faced and watched the battle with open eyes.

SMASH! Down came a massive fist down on Shard's nearly limp body. The many Diamonds had taken turns trying to rip Shard apart, and finding it useless, had simple been taking turns creatively trying to smash his chest and head in. A few of them had managed to but some minor dents in his arms and legs, and he was covered in scratches, but externally he seemed relatively invulnerable. On the inside however, every single part of him that wasn't already completely destroyed was being forced into overdrive in a futile attempt to provide repairs and energy to Shard's tough exterior in order to prevent it from being breached.

Back, deep down in the hallway, Lapis and the Crystal Gems ran for their lives as the darkness continued to gain on them. The light that had been far down the horizon was now quite close, although even it seemed to be dimming. Once they reached it, they could see that it was just an opening into a massive silvery-grey spherical metal chamber, with a large metal rod coated in black wires as big around as Garnet sticking up from the middle of the floor into the middle of the ceiling. The hole they were at, which seemed to be the main access into the hallway, was about at the halfway point between the ceiling and floor, and appeared roughly two hundred meters above the ground. With the darkness closing in on them and no other exits to be seen, they jumped down towards the ground. Soon they landed, and amazingly didn't create even the smallest dent in the strange metal.

The darkness now reached the end of the hallway, and at first it seemed to stop there, but after several seconds it began to move out and fill the room, although at a much slower pace than it had been filling the hallway. A sudden increase in brightness caught the Gem's attention. Several balls of light were descending inside the partially transparent cables around the central pole in the room, and well before they reached the bottom, another set came out. As they went over to investigate however, the last burst of lights pulsed down, and now the cables glow began shutting down, starting from the top. Soon the light from these would be completely out, leaving them in the darkness which still spread in from the hallway. Before it could reach the bottom though, they found a small door or hatch of some kind nearly hidden behind the cables. Opening it, they stepping into the lit chamber inside, which began to move down slowly, almost like an elevator.

Back on Geminius Prime 3, the moon which Shard was currently on, the Diamonds had been taking out their rage on him for nearly an hour. Steven had been allowed to look away only a few minutes ago, but he could no longer bear to turn his head away. The guard smirked behind him, he loved the way the Diamonds broke the spirits of traitorous young Gems so they could brainwash them into doing whatever homeworld wanted of them. With one last kick, Shard was sent flying into the face of a large nearby rock. The Diamonds were done playing with Shard now, and planned to finally knock him unconscious for sure, something he had been stubbornly avoiding, at his own great discomfort, in what seemed to be an attempt to spite them. The other Diamonds all stood back, leaving plenty of room for Red Diamond. She backed up a ways, got a running head start, then jumped what seemed like nearly half a kilometer into the air, before beginning to come back down right above Shard. Steven's breath caught in his throat and he was finally able to look away and close his eyes.

Meanwhile, the elevator pad had been descending slowly down the tube, with the darkness slowly following above it. It reached the bottom no more than a couple minutes after they had gotten on, but it wasn't soon enough for the Gem's tastes. Once it had stopped, a decent sized door opened in front of them, and they stepped out into the white-paneled room it had taken them to. No ceiling could be seen at any height overhead, in fact the room seemed to extend upwards forever. Around them, the white panels occasionally would change color, becoming various shades of other colors, sometimes just barely off-white, other times much deeper in saturation. As they turned back around to look at the elevator shaft that had brought them here, they noticed that the cables that had been wrapped around it at the higher level were now gone. All of a sudden, everything flashed red. A few more flashes of the same crimson color quickly followed, and the panels seemed to separate slightly. Then, the panels dropped into nothingness below them, causing the Gems to fall as well, and left everything in complete and total darkness...

Steven finally looked up and saw Red Diamond climbing off of Shard. Her impact had put several deep cracks around his whole body, and had finally driven him out of the waking world. She picked him up and beckoned to the others, and they all began heading back towards Steven and the warp pad...

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Well, that was a LITTLE bit darker than I had planned, but I think the point I was going for has come across. Don't worry though, there is light at the end of this tunnel, and this light will not be going out. Also, I will give a little spoiler and tell you that Steven will not be beaten like Shard was, he will be MOSTLY unharmed. Either way, I'll see you soon in the next chaper, and until then, PEACE!


	19. The decent into darkness 4

Greetings loyal readers! Hope you're all doing well, and eager for a new chapter, because I've got one! Here ya' go!

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Falling, falling, endlessly falling... for almost four days now the Crystal Gems and Lapis had been falling down the seemingly endless hole. The darkness around them was so absolute that they couldn't see each other, or themselves, no matter how close they put something in front of their eyes. Although no sound came from the surroundings, and no walls of any kind to reflect or block sound could be felt, they could hear any noises they made. Using their voices and senses of touch, they managed to move towards each other until they could link their arms, assuring they would fall together. At least that way they couldn't get separated...

Shortly into the fifth day of falling, light began to shine again. With no walls, ceiling, or floor immediately apparent as far as their eyes could see, the light seemed to be projected out of the very air around them. Still, they continued to fall. A few minutes after the light had began, it reached its full brightness, and off in the distance a tiny black speck appeared. Larger and larger the speck grew, until finally it began to assume a distinct humanoid shape. After several more minutes, the figure was finally close enough to be seen clearly. It was Shard. But he seemed... different...

He'd been unconscious for a while, but exactly how long he had no idea. But, he had only just woken up, he was sure to have some minor memory problems. Off in the distance he sensed Lapis and the Crystal Gems, and began to make his way over to them. As he got closer, he could make out the fear and confusion on their faces. Surely they had figured out where they were, right? It had to have been at least a few hours he was out for, maybe even a day. How could they not have realized where they were yet?

The Gems stared upon Shard as he drew close. His signature clothes were... absolutely horrible... torn, tattered, and shredded beyond belief. Around him, a thin dark aura spun, and a large portion of his head was a deathly grey. All the rest of his skin was also paler than usual, and bore many scorch marks. But the worst thing was his eyes. They were simply empty. Just... light blue orbs, no irises or pupils to be seen. And the horrible eyes, wherever they looked, the air seemed to grow colder at a rapid pace. They were like ghost's eyes, but in something much more terrifying than any ghost.

Shard stopped when he was just in front of them. His smile wavered and became quite worried for about a second, but soon the cheer returned, although not as big as it usually was. "Is something wrong?" he hesitantly asked.

None of the Crystal Gems knew what to say to this chilling image that had haunted their minds for the last several days, so in the end it was Lapis who spoke up, albeit feebly. "What ARE you?" she inquired, trying her best to stare into his eyes and not being able to bring herself to.

"Still stuck up on that? I'd have thought a few hours would make more of a difference... I'd told you before I had to enhance myself to survive... I just didn't want you to have to see what I've turned myself into. I am a machine. A cold, hard, machine. I built a new body as my old one died, and became a new being. A living machine, capable of standing against the darkness of Geminius Prime. But you have no need to fear. Only those who would harm innocents need to fear me." His empty eyes wandered over them, searching them to see if they would accept the truth, if they COULD accept it... "I suppose the more important question would be, why are you all together like that? You've had... I don't even know how long to figure out where you are. Have you really no clue what this place is?"

"No. We don't know what this horrific place is. We've been here for over four days! As far as we can tell, it's nothing but a deathtrap!"

Shard winced visibly as the place was called horrible. His hands made a short sweeping motion in front of him, first above them, then below them. A couple circular platforms, a few meters across each, formed just above and just below them. They continued to float as if falling. "Step on. You may choose which way you wish gravity to point you. This is not a place where such things have power. For the last several days, apparently, you've been floating through my mind."

"How? How is such a thing possible?" Pearl asked.

"You recently crashed in a ship that could interface directly with your minds, yet you doubt that you could be in the mind of another? Your gems, they lie protected, in a chamber near my physical core. Telepathic circuits line its walls. This whole time, you could have been shaping whole worlds for yourselves out of pure imagination and thought. And yet, you fell for days, unable to grasp the reality and lack thereof right in front of you, while I stayed unconscious." With these words, Shard sat himself on the platform above the Gems. Eventually the others sat, all on the 'floor' platform. Before more could be said, a new, much smaller Shard appeared, but covered in dull orange rather than black. Immediately he attempted to attack and destroy the main Shard, growing larger by the second.

Back out in the real world, Shard awoke. He had been chained and experimented on for days, and only now had his coma lifted. The instant the technicians surrounding him noticed it, they placed the tiny orange rod-shaped machine they had been working on into a tiny crack in his neck which had not yet healed. With his waking, in addition to the knowledge they had gained from his broken and sleeping form, they had created a perfect machine. Any second now, the mind of their most dangerous enemy would be destroyed, and he would become one of THEIR strongest weapons.

The orange and normal Shards within his head wrestled, and soon the orange one overpowered him, before absorbing his remains. Shard's mind was now dead, and in its place stood the orange splinter-crystal. Darkness of a different kind was about to fall...

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Yay for creepy endings! Tell me what you think in the reviews, and as always, see you soon!


	20. The decent into darkness 5

W00t! 20 chapters! (Technically 18 because of the three-part chapter 12, but still...) Thank you to all readers and especially all reviewers! No more stalling now, it's story time!

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The real-world Shard was partially restrained on the testing table, with several Gem scientists around him waiting to see the results of their work. Sure enough, not long after the orange controller was slipped in, he awoke fully. His eyes, which had been a bright aquamarine, now began to change. Almost like a liquid flowing down a hole, the color drained slowly from his irises, falling down the pupil until none was left. Then, a deep, fiery orange seeped out and filled them drained irises. His clothing also changed. A think orange band made its way from the each shoulder of his trench-coat down to the bottom of it, and any visible dark blue he had been wearing became a dark orange. It had worked.

Steven had been left in his cell ever since he had been brought back from the moon where Shard had been tortured, in the hopes of further breaking his spirit. The Gems did know that as a partially organic being, he could not quite survive on only his gem's energy, and had created a form of nourishment. Although what they ending up making was little more than a multi-vitamin, combined with the energy his gem could provide him, it was just enough for him to survive off of. Although he would still be quite hungry, he would not starve.

A new guard approached the door to Steven's cell. After a quick conversation with one of the other guards at the door, he opened it and ordered Steven to follow him, keeping a short spear-like weapon in view should he consider trying to run off. The guard led Steven down many halls and rooms to a small warp pad, which led to more hallways, more rooms, and more warp pads. A half-hour later, they reached their destination. The in front of them slid open to reveal a group of scientists around Shard.

Shard stared at Steven for a few seconds. Steven stared back at him. After what seemed like hours, but was in fact only seconds, Shard spoke up. "It was... Steven? Yes. Steven, listen to me. These Gems, this planet... soon they shall have it all. I have joined them already. Join us. Forget the Earth." Even his voice sounded mechanical now. There was no emotion, no caring in it. He was cold, indifferent, and completely unlike his normal cheery self. And his smile, it too was non-existent. His face was blank and expressionless, devoid of emotion as much as his voice. Even his speech was mechanized, spoken at an even pace and in perfect monotone.

"Wha- what did they do to you?!" Steven asked as he stumbled back, only to be stopped and pushed back forwards by the guard.

"While my body has yet to fully heal, I have no mental defects, I assure you. All thoughts, memories, and willpower counter to my present state have been, shall we say, DELETED." he replied in the same monotone voice. "It is the only choice. Do as our superiors tell us, or be destroyed." He extended his hand to Steven. The motion of his arm was just as measured and robotic as his speech.

"No, I can't! Earth is my home! All my friends are there!" Steven smacked Shard's extended hand away. He regretted it as soon as he saw Shard's eyes. A dark, cruel and calculated anger flared dangerously in the fire of his orange eyes.

All the Gems looked at the new Shard to see how he would react. Fail-safes had been built into him to prevent him for attacking them, but someone else... they knew how dangerous he could be when angered.

Shard's hand moved with incredible slowness back to his side. He stared at Steven for nearly a minute before he spoke. "Return him to his cell. Keep him alive and relatively unharmed. He will break in time." he told the guard.

The look of even further betrayal filled Steven's eyes as he was dragged off to his cell. The scientists behind Shard told Shard to get back on the table. He complied. They talked quickly among themselves. They had decided to leave most of his memories intact so he could be of maximum use to them, and had left some decision-making ability in him as well, so that he would be able to work for them without constant commands from them. But letting him give them orders was not something they wanted, so that ability would have to be removed...

Back on the tiny world of Earth, Ruby had been at the galaxy warp for a couple days now. Her gem rested on the pad as she had been instructed. She hoped that whatever Shard had planned, he would do soon, because this was very boring. She also hoped nothing had happened to him, it would be even worse if she were stuck waiting for help that was never to come. She had no idea how far from wanting to help her Shard currently was...

Back in the mind of Shard, right after the orange imposter Shard had destroyed and taken over the mental form of the real Shard, he had turned his attention to Lapis and the Crystal Gems in front of him. From the memories he had just absorbed, he knew they had walked through the halls of some of his other memories, mostly just the ones of the real world around him, and not of his actual thoughts. It was time he fixed that. He brought his right hand out in front of him and pointed it at them, slowly compacting it into a fist. He stuck his thumb out. Then he turned his hand until it pointed straight down. Immediately, the 'floor' they sat on broke away, and they fell into a pit he had made below them. As they hit the ground, he laughed down at them.

"Welcome," he said, "to the hall of nightmares. Every dark dream, and every dark though this mind has even beholden, lies along there. It will be your new home until the end of time. Goodbye forever, weaklings." He flicked his hand away, closing the opening. It was time to get to work. He had a lot to do if he was going to help the homeworld Gems complete project snap-freeze well ahead of time.

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I hope you all liked this chapter, even though it too is rather dark. What can I say, I kind of like writing dark chapters. But never fear, all hope is not lost, it's just... hidden... Anyways, please leave a review or two, and I'll see you all in the next chapter soon! Bye!


	21. The decent into darkness 6

I don't have anything to say for an author's note, so here you go, have a nice new chapter instead!

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Surprisingly, what had been called "The Hall of Nightmares" didn't seem so bad. It seemed to be little more than a dimly lit tunnel. Or at least, it had at first... Down the tunnel, off in the distance, something began to move towards them at extreme speed. The dull grayness of the tunnel was replaced with solid black just behind it. Within a few seconds it had covered nearly half the distance between them. The next few brought it within proper view. It was Shard, without the orange on him, no doubt one of his memories of something bad that happened to him... In the last couple seconds, he slowed down his rapid forwards movement, coming to a stop mere feet in front of them. The terrified Gems prepared for the worst.

Nothing happened. They waited for almost a minute, expecting him to be building suspense before striking. But none came. They hesitantly looked up and saw he had his finger over his mouth as if telling them to be silent. In the darkness behind him dark and deeply disturbing memories played out behind the walls, which now appeared to be more of a glass than metal. Shard's other hand was held out in front of him. "Shh..." he whispered. "We can't make much noise or orangey up there will hear us. If you value your sanity and life, we need to get out of this place as soon as possible. I can't hold the nightmares back behind me forever, at some point they will have to pass through."

As he spoke he kept looking between them and a spot on the floor between them. A hole with a ladder in it had appeared, and each time he looked at it, it became less and less transparent, until soon it was fully solid. The Gems had noticed it while it was still quite transparent, and now that it was solid, it seemed like they had little choice but to go down. They climbed down until they reached they layer below them, which was only about ten feet down. Shard then jumped down the hole, letting it and the hall disappear as soon as he had reached the bottom.

Strangely, the room they found themselves in was much higher than ten feet, but soon enough the Gems realized that since they were in a mindscape, the standard rules of geometry did not necessarily apply. But now they wanted answers, and they were not happy. "What were you thinking!?" Amethyst nearly exploded as she yelled at him.

"What?" Shard asked nearly innocently. "Did I do something wrong?" As he talked he paced around on the white void below him, a small section of tile appearing under each foot as he put it down and disappearing as it was lifted. Screens full of calculations and figures would appear every so often in front of him for a few seconds as he walked, only to leave once he had seen them. Still, he continued to look at them for the most part as he walked.

"You made us watch you kill yourself and turn all orange, then threw us into a dark hall! On top of that, you've had us running around in here for ages!" Amethyst yelled at him again.

"So what you're telling me is that my plan worked perfectly and I actually managed to save all of you instead of letting you all die by not bringing you in here? Because that's what I'm hearing. Well, thinking technically... which reminds me, you might want to take a look at these, and listen to this..." he said as he pulled a large 3-D screen out of nowhere, and tossed a bunch of little speakers around to the sides. "This screen allows access to whatever my physical eyes are currently seeing, and the speakers have a similar connection to my ears."

The screen and speakers came to life, and after a short time the Gems got more used to looking out of someone else's eyes. Around them were several Gem scientists all looking down at Shard's physical body, although it seemed quite disturbingly as if they were looking back through the eyes at them, even though they knew it wasn't true. Soon he was made to stand up, and as he moved to stand they saw that firstly, he was no longer bound, and secondly, his clothes had all adopted some form of orange on part of them.

"They think they know so much." Shard spoke up from behind them, not really caring much if they listened or not. "They believed that simply because I look simple, they can take over my mind. So I made a fake alternate personality, nearly identical to my normal personality, but with a way fewer memories. He even believed he was the real me. But he was so much weaker. Then, those Gems out there tried to take over, and once they destroyed the fake me, they believed they'd won. But instead, I am the real winner, because they let my body be more free when they think I'm no longer in control. And even better, I can influence ol' orange me slightly, meaning I can keep some of the heat off Steven as well."

The Crystal Gems turned around, only to see that he hadn't even been looking at them when he had been telling them that, but instead was in front of his own set of screens, touching parts of them to change what they displayed, and typing in new commands occasionally.

"Sadly, you don't have the, shall we say... knowledge... that you need yet. Nor are you close enough to a part of my mindscape where you can return to your physical gems, and thus physical forms. I can bring up the memories you'll need to see, if you'd like, but you'll have to go through them alone. Meanwhile, I have to get back to work calculating the path back to Ruby that you'll be on soon. And remember, this whole place is me, so even if you can't see a physical representation of me here, I'm actually all around." As he spoke, several new and very differently shaped doors grew from the ground in front of the Gems, each one now holding the title of the memory it belonged to. Then Shard began to wave goodbye as his mental projection of himself started to dissolve.

"Wait, what happened to Ruby?!" Sapphire yelled at him. She had to know if Ruby was still alright, she couldn't bare not knowing. But it was too late, by the time she had asked, Shard was already gone, leaving only five large doors towering in front of them. As the Gems began to move into the first door, they tried to read the first door's title, but couldn't make out what language it was written in. Once they had all entered, the door began to close, and the title finished translating itself just a few seconds too late. As it clicked shut, the title read: "The final hour of Earth."

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Dun dun DUUUUUN! BAM! Is this chapter a game changer or what? Anyhow, I don't have much to say for a note here other than that the next chapter should be out in a day or two. Until then, PLEASE review, and I'll see you all later. Bye!


	22. The decent into darkness 7

Hey guys! Sorry this came out later than I had said. I've had company over the last couple days and I hadn't been able to write, and they are staying at least another day so the next chapter will also be a bit delayed. Don't worry though, I'm still going to keep writing until this story is done. Anyways, please enjoy this chapter!

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Steven was absolutely starving. While his half-Gem body didn't NEED more than some basic nutrients and a little water to survive, he had been used to eating, and the lack of substantial food was one of the most unpleasant experiences he'd had so far. But even worse than the hunger pains were the emotional pains he was currently feeling. Not long ago he wouldn't have believed that anyone could be as cruel and mean-spirited as the Homeworld Gems. Even when people had gotten angry or upset, he had still believed in the goodness he thought was inside them, but now his faith was being shaken. Maybe these Gems just didn't have anything good in them...

Back on Earth, Beach City was still recovering from the disaster of the temple destroying itself in a huge explosion. Thankfully most of the blast seemed to have been either somehow absorbed or at least vented upwards, but the shock wave had still shattered all of the exposed glass in the city. Even worse however, was the fact that some of the weaker monster-Gems had been woken up by the blast and had attacked. None of the people had been too seriously hurt since the monsters themselves were the smallest and weakest of the bunch, and were already hurt, but they still had destroyed a decent bit of the city before they had been stopped.

Connie felt the loss the most though. When she came back to the city to visit, she was horrified to discover that the temple had been destroyed. Even worse however, was the news that the people of the city all seemed to agree on: Steven and the Crystal Gems had been in the area of the temple when it was destroyed, and they had not been seen since. With the belief that her best, not to mention only, friend had been killed, Connie had to find somewhere to be properly alone. And so she found herself on top of the tallest cliff just outside the city, crying to herself, not very loudly, but certainly not silent either.

Eventually she came to be aware that someone was coming up the hill, and she was unsure of what to do, but she quickly discovered that it was merely Ronaldo coming up to brood. Unsure of what to do, and unable to just leave without being seen, she decided to stay sitting where she was, looking out over the cliff and away from Ronaldo.

As he got closer, Ronaldo noticed that the girl he sometimes saw Steven hanging out with was in his brooding spot. What was her name again? But as he got even closer, he could hear that she was still lightly crying. Unsure of exactly what to do or say, he continued on to his spot and looked out over the city, occasionally looking down to her for a second before looking back at the city again. Eventually he decided it was best to say something, so he spoke up. "So... are you ok?"

Connie had sat in near silence as Ronaldo had come up and looked around, but had been mostly ignoring him, so she almost missed what he said when he finally spoke. "Oh, uh... I'm... I'm fine..." she lied.

Ronaldo knew she was lying. He still felt like he should try to cheer her up though. What could she be so sad about? Unless... he didn't see her around very often, so she wasn't from the city... maybe she had just found out about Steven's home being gone. Sure everyone had been sad that they seemed to be gone, but if she were closer to Steven, she might be more affected. He thought for a little while, until he thought of something that might make her feel better. "Are you... sad because Steven is gone?"

She looked up at him partially, her eyes still slightly red and wet. She decided it wouldn't be worth the trouble to deny it. "Yes..." she sadly admitted. "I just can't believe that "no one there was able to get out."

"Well then, I have something that might cheer you up. I haven't told anyone yet, I haven't even put it on my blog, but not long after Steven's house was destroyed, I saw a little red girl running away from there, and she had one of those stones in her hand like Steven's really tall friend. She ran off that way." he said as he pointed off in the distance. "I think she might be part of some conspiracy involving what happened. If you could find her maybe you could get some answers."

Connie wasn't sure what to say, but she now knew that at least one person had survived the catastrophe, so maybe Steven wasn't gone yet. She stood up after a short time and thanked Ronaldo, before heading off to look for the red girl. As long as Steven could still be alive, she would stop at nothing to find him.

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Well, I hope you all enjoyed this! And just to be INCREDIBLY clear, I am not somehow trying to pair Connie and Ronaldo. Anyhow, I will see you all in a few days, and until then, BYE!


	23. The decent into darkness 8

I have returned with another chapter, much earlier than I expected! YAY! I have been having so much fun with writing this story, and love every one of you readers for your support, so I'm going to just jump right into the story now. Enjoy!

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As Connie descended the large hill, her practical side began to inject more realistic thoughts in place of her excitement. She couldn't just run off on a wild chase to find Steven. If she was going to look for him, she would have to get some supplies first, plus she'd also need to check out the crater to see if there was any clue as to where the red girl had gone. And so after getting down from the hill, she made her way over to the crater and began to look down into it for a safe path to the bottom. But it seemed the ground below her had other, more exciting, ideas. As she stepped on a loose chunk of earth on the edge, it broke off and sent her tumbling down into the crater.

Down in the bottom, she picked herself up. She was covered in dirt and slightly bruised, but nothing was too seriously hurt. Down here in the bottom of the crater, she found remains of small parts of the house, but what interested her most was a plank with large writing sitting just in front of her. It had written on it instructions to Ruby, the Gem Steven had told her composed half of Garnet, and was from... well the signature had been burned off... but this did make her realize that the red girl must have been Ruby. And from the many times Steven had showed her the warp pads and told of his adventures, she knew roughly where the Galaxy warp was. Just maybe, if she was lucky, she could make it there in a couple weeks. Judging by the message, it seemed unlikely that anyone would be returning before then, but it sounded like Steven was alive, so she had to go there as soon as she could. Now all she had to do was get OUT of the crater.

Back in Shard's mind, craters of a much worse kind were soon to be seen. As the Crystal Gems and Lapis heard the door close behind them, they looked out at what had to be the Earth. But it was not the Earth as they had ever seen it before. The world below them was no longer blue, the seas were mostly dried, and the edges of the continents stood as massive cliffs above near-empty oceans. The land was devoid of human, animal, and even most plant life. Fire and lava were spread across the surface of the world, and the sky was a dull gray-brown. It was now a second red planet. As the memory continued on, they noticed that many large craters and huge rocks also littered the surface of the planet. Out in the distance, huge boulders floated around the remains of the dead world. Looking around, no moon could be seen. Apparently many of the huge rocks on the planet and the ones orbiting it were all that remained of the moon.

They were all terrified. If this was Earth, and a memory, could it have been that the planet was destroyed some time between when they were forced back into their gems and when Shard was taken off-planet? It couldn't be, could it? But as they continued to drift out high above the world they had once called home, they felt the presence of one that they knew. Not far in front of them, no more than a few hundred meters, a small chunk of what used to be the moon floated by, with Shard standing on it, facing the remains of the Earth. In his hands was something they had seen but once before. He seemed to be holding his own anti-matter gem in his hand, keeping a force field around it, and seeming quite weak, which made sense considering that his power source was no longer in him.

Much as they wanted to call out to him, out this far in space their voices couldn't be heard, and even if they could, talking to a memory probably wouldn't work very well anyways. So instead they watched as he continued to stare at the gem, before turning and jumping off the rock he had been on. His jump propelled him away from the dead Earth, and sent the rock down towards it. As Shard continued to fly off, they were pulled slightly towards him. Apparently they couldn't move more than a certain distance from him in his memories. They looked back at the rock as it fell through the remains of the atmosphere and made a new crater in what used to be the middle North America.

Looking back at Shard, who continued to fly off at speeds far beyond those of the fastest Gem craft, they were surprised to see the door they had used to enter this place had re-appeared in front of them, open again. As they were dragged on, un-able to move away on their own, they flew through the door and back into the more blank mindscape. The door once more closed behind them. They slowly got up and looked at it, reading the now translated title. It was not long however, before the door began to fade away, leaving the other four doors. It seemed as if one viewing of each memory would be all they would get. They had no other choice but to move on, but this time they carefully looked at the title before going in. This one read: "The last day of Spirilon."

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Well, I hope this chapter was good, because I can't tell if I love or hate it. Please leave your reviews on how you liked the chapter, and what you think could be going on. See you all soon!


	24. The decent into darkness 9

Hello once more, my loyal readers! I hear you found the last chapter a tad sad, but not to worry, this next one should be nice and sad too! Mwahahaha! I mean... you'll all love it! Enjoy!

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As the new door closed behind them, the Gems prepared themselves for the worst. But to their surprise, they found themselves in a field of a purple-blue grass and tall purple flowers. It certainly didn't seem too horrible. But then they saw Shard as he flew a short distance overhead, heading towards a dull roaring sound in the distance. As they were dragged along, being made to keep within a certain distance of his memory, they soon found that the source of the sound was a huge and brutal war being fought between the people who apparently lived on this planet, and an absolutely massive army of Gem warriors. And now it seemed as if Shard was joining in the fray...

Connie sat in her room, looking around at everything she owned. Her parents had been rather upset at how dirty she was when they returned to pick her up, but after hearing how it had been an accident due to a 'sinkhole' as she had told them it was, they had been slightly easier on her. But now that she had been home for a day, she had secretly packed a bunch of survival-type gear. Once her parents drove her back to see Steven, who she had also neglected to tell them was no longer at beach city, she planned on hiking out to find the Galaxy warp.

Meanwhile, deep in a darkened lab far below the surface of Geminius Prime, the Orange Shard worked hard on forging some of the plates to cover the core of the time-stopping bomb the Gems had assigned him to. Gladly he had been working, day and night with no rest, helping create Earth's death sentence. One of the gem scientists came in for a daily check-up on him, to make sure he was still working properly. He tested a few commands on the Orange Shard, and satisfied that he was behaving, signaled one of the nearby workers to take the newly finished plates out to the rest of the bomb's components. As the scientist prepared to leave, two other guards came in, keeping the 'Steven' walking just ahead of them.

Orange Shard didn't even look up from his work as Steven was made to approach. Only after the guards ordered him to speak did he actually notice them. He raised his head slightly, staring as Steven, his arms still working perfectly and mechanically, repeating the same and only movements he had been doing for the last several days without flaw. "Steven." he said in his monotone voice. "Are you ready yet to abandon your planet and join us?" His words may have been all for homeworld, but this time Steven saw something in his eyes. For a few brief seconds, they turned blue again, and words ran across them like on a screen. His message was: "I'm not gone yet. It's all an act. But time is short. Do as they say, but please, HELP ME." And then the blueness and the message were gone, the orange returned, and he acted as if they had never happened.

Now even more unsure of himself, Steven continued to hesitate. The Orange Shard continued to stare at him. Finally, Steven brought himself to answer. "Fine... I'll work for homeworld..." he mumbled out. The guards now began to take him away again. Now that he worked for them, they would have to test his abilities and train him. And until he proved himself VERY loyal, he would not be let out of sight. Before the door closed, he looked back at Orange Shard. His head was once more bowed over his work, and whatever life he had been displaying was gone.

BAM! Huge weapons of all sorts were being used all around them, and Lapis and the Crystal Gems stood just outside the main battlefield. In front of them, warfare beyond anything they had seen on Earth was shaking the very planet. Gems and the Spirilons alike were being destroyed. Shard continued to do his best to help defeat the Gems. Every minute, he smashed several Gems into nothingness, working his way to the center of the fight. But more Gem ships continued to arrive, firing down on everyone from above and adding more soldiers to the fight. Even Shard could not keep up with the constantly growing army.

The fight raged on, hour after hour. Shard had lost his left arm nearly up to the shoulder. He simply continued to fight, as if nothing had happened. But he was slowing down. Clearly such a huge loss was eating up his power supply at an alarming rate. A few of the larger Spirilons stood around him, all their backs together. They seemed to be telling Shard something. As Shard shook his head no, they all took out something small from their shields and put them together. Shard was immediately warped away, a few miles off. The Crystal Gems and Lapis were pulled along with him. The now found themselves inside a large dome, made of metal and something similar to glass, but not quite the same. A short ways in front of them, Shard and a lone Spirilon stood. They could now get a better look at the strange natural inhabitants of this world.

The Spirilon stood tall, nearly two and a half meters from top to bottom. It's shape was roughly humanoid, but it seemed to be more plant than animal based. Green, flowing body, and a flower-like head. From his talking, he seemed to be one of the highest leaders of this world.

"Sir!" Shard said, as respectfully as he could while staying rushed. "Why was I pulled from the fight?! We can still win this! Your planet could still survive!"

"No, Shard." the Spirilon spoke slowly, a sad smile on his face. "New ships have arrived above our second city. More troops continue to flood our lands. Soon even you will be no match for the might of the vast army on our world. Our planet is doomed. But you, you CAN survive. You can go on, become stronger, and one day you can beat the Gems for us and all the other defenseless worlds out there. If you stay, all you can do is prolong our suffering and your own. Come, take the transporter, it can take you anywhere within a few tens of thousands of miles. You can escape into space with it."

"Sir, I cannot accept this generosity. I can't just leave you and your people to die, knowing I could still make a difference. If it is all the same to you, use your last transport to take me back to the battle. Please, just trust me."

The still sadly-smiling Spirilon nodded to him and had him step on the transporter, telling him that if he really wished, he could go back to the battle. He typed in a few symbols and hit the button. The next thing they knew, the Crystal gems, Lapis, and Shard all found themselves in space high above the planet. Passing right by them was a massive Gem warship, and it had just fired something huge down at the planet below. Before Shard could get very far back to the planet, the object landed on the dome they had recently been in. It exploded on impact, leveling the dome and the battle-ground, killing all living things within a few dozen miles, including the Gems' own warriors. There was nothing left for Shard to go back to, whatever few creatures were left on the tiny planet would be wiped out before he could get to them. And so, with sad heart Shard flew off to repair himself, and the Gems following him fell back through the doorway into his mindscape once more. Spirilon had fallen.

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Yay! More horrible past/backstory! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and don't worry, good things will eventually happen again. It just might be a while, considering the huge amount of darkness Shard has endured. Also, this is my longest chapter so far, so yay for me! Anyhow, I will see you all again really soon, and until then, PEACE!


	25. The decent into darkness 10

Well, I think that last chapter went pretty well, don't you? Just kidding, of course, but thankfully, the end of Book 2 is nearing, and then the story will brighten up a bit. But until then, get comfy, sit back, and enjoy!

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Two down, three to go. This was the thought in the Crystal Gem's and Lapis' mind right now as they stared at the three remaining memory doors. But it was too much for Pearl. The horrors of the last two rooms had unnerved all of them, but they had taken a far greater toll on her. As they began to move towards the next door, she suddenly stopped walking towards it and began to stumble away, great apprehension written plainly on her face. It looked as if the others were going to have to stop Pearl from having a complete nervous breakdown before they could progress...

Outside the mindscape, the physical Orange Shard had finished his forging of the last temporal plating for the time-stopping bomb, and now was made to work on the next part of the deadly creation. In a new, dull-red glowing chamber, tens of thousands of baseball-sized warp pad gems surrounded him like a sea. In the center of this dark hole, a pedestal holding one of the rarest objects in the universe gave forth the sinister blood-red light that kept the chamber from being fully dark. It was one of the universe's last phase crystals. It was Orange Shard's job to steal huge amounts of energy from many no longer populated gem-controlled planets using the warp gems, and then to put it all into the phase crystal.

Out across the vast darkness of space, planets both covered and filled with fire and lava burned. Many long millennia ago, they had been filled with life, and had relatively cool climates. But after centuries of drilling from many kindergartens, all their life died out as the planet became more and more unstable, until eventually the vast energy and heat from their cores erupted through the broken crust and covered them in raging volcanoes. But now, after having been abandoned by even the Gems for so long, they began to change once more...

Over mere hours, the heat of a whole planet was drained away, stolen through warp gems and funneled into a monstrous machine on the planet responsible for making them this way. As the heat of each of these molten planets was ripped away, they cooled at an unnatural rate. Soon, they were fully dead. No longer were they even heat-filled worlds resembling a planet, instead, they now drifted alone in the infinite loneliness of the cosmos as cold, hard balls of rock, never to be remembered again.

Nearly a dozen days passed this way. Glowing orbs that had once been home to beautiful life went dark, and the evil workshop of Orange Shard grew brighter as each world's life was stolen and put into the phase crystal, increasing its glow. Out on the surface far above him, Steven was made to train under strict watch of some of the smaller Gem guards to become a Gem warrior himself, never enough to inflict serious damage upon him, but enough that he was always on the verge of exhaustion. Back deeper down, within Orange Shard, the mind of the real Shard still lived, working hard, and teaching Lapis and the Crystal Gems an important history lesson, for soon the bomb would be ready, and if they couldn't stop it, the Earth would meet the same fate as the other planets his orange self had been draining.

Meanwhile, back on the Earth, life continued on as usual, except for one girl. Connie had been traveling for a couple weeks, and finally the small mountain holding the Galaxy warp was right in front of her. It had been a difficult road, but she was finally nearing the end of her long journey. All that was left was a long day's climb...

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Yes, I know the chapter was short. But I'm having trouble figuring out HOW I want to say what I have thought up, because putting it down the way I would want to read it, you'd need degrees in advanced physics to understand it. Still, for now I think I'll be able to put out the chapters pretty constantly. If you DO really like this story, please leave more reviews! It makes writing so much less of a chore when I know people enjoy what I've put out. I would be the happiest person on Earth if I could get, say... 3 reviews on this chapter before the next one. But either way, I hope you enjoy, and I'll see you all later. BYE!


	26. The decent into darkness 11

Never fear everyone, I'm back, and I have a lovely new chapter for you! So without further ado, here it is!

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It had taken several hours, but Connie had finally managed to get close enough to the top of the mountain to see the crystal pillars at the edge of the Galaxy warp. It would only be a few more minutes before she was at the top. Someone better be here for all the trouble she had gone through. Plus, it would be hard enough to explain herself to her parents if she came back successful, much less if she came back a failure. Of course she'd written a note telling them she was going to be gone for a while, but they were still probably worried and a little mad.

Upon reaching the flattened crystalline surface of the Galaxy warp, Connie sighed heavily in relief. She finished pulling herself up onto it and stood. It was beautiful, but very old and broken looking, except for two of the pads. And to make it so much better, the red girl who she believed to be Ruby was lying on the biggest of the pads, and one of the two fixed ones. Things were finally looking up.

Shing! A sharp blade swung in front of Steven. He had only just barely stepped backwards in time to avoid a rather large and painful cut through his stomach. A few more swings, and few more steps back, and then... he lunged forwards and to the side, kicking his opponent's leg out from under them and causing them to fall to the ground. Much as he hated these difficult, tiring, and often at least slightly painful training sessions, he had to admit that they were affective. Since his forced training had started, his trainers only barely held back. He had several medium-small scars already, and had been bruised many separate times. But with the pain, he also had more reason than ever to take his training seriously and not mess up, because it would be much more painful that way.

"Adequate." One of the trainers watching his fight remarked. "Now finish them." he commanded.

He hated to do it, but Steven didn't have much choice. As his opponent began to get back to their feet, he concentrated and summoned his shield, before hitting them as hard as he could in the head with it. With a sudden 'poof', they disappeared back into their gem. It was the third time he'd managed to beat his easiest opponent. And although he still felt kind of bad for hurting them, he reminded himself that they would eventually come back. His teacher stood.

"Finally. You have passed your first level of training. If you were not partially organic, you would be moving on to the next level right now. As it is, you have this coming night to sleep before you come back. You have permission to return to your room."

With those heartwarming words from his instructor, a very tired Steven made his way back to his room, which was not too far from the mini-arena that was used to train very young Gems, himself included. When he got there, he saw that his 'food' was waiting for him. He took the collection of a few pills and the small container of water and quickly finished them, setting them back in their place to be refilled the next day. As he collapsed on the strange smoothened rock he now called his bed, he thought about all the progress he had made with his powers in the last few weeks.

Since he had started, Steven had not only nearly completed mastering his bubble shield, but had gotten quite proficient at summoning his hand shield as well. In addition, he was getting tougher and less hurt by minor things rapidly, and his speed, focus, and strength had all improved by a decent amount. He wasn't nearly super-human in strength yet, but he was at least a much stronger human than before. And another somewhat nice thing was his weight. He hadn't really been dangerously overweight before, but he had been a little on the pudgy side. But now, he had lost several pounds and was a little slimmer than before, which he was quite proud of. As these thoughts passed through his mind, he began to drift off into the relative peace of sleep, which he would need plenty of, for tomorrow was going to be much more draining than before.

The Orange Shard off far on the other side of the planet, and miles underground, still worked hard in the chamber he had been in for a while. But no longer was it dark. The dull red glow from the phase crystal had gotten slightly brighter and hotter with each new world's power it absorbed. By now, it was a blinding yellow-white, and radiated heat at nearly four hundred degrees Kelvin, or two hundred and sixty Fahrenheit, well more than hot enough to boil water or blood. Thankfully, the heat and light were not enough to melt or blind him, since anything organic about him had been removed and destroyed long ago. Soon, the many worlds he had to drain would all be dead, and his work in this area would be complete.

Back on the Earth, Connie had approached the red girl. As soon as Ruby saw her, she jumped up, startled. But within seconds she realized her mistake and placed her gem back on the warp pad. "What are you doing here?" she asked Connie.

"What am I doing here? I've been looking for you! You're Ruby, aren't you?" she replied.

"Yes. What do you care? And come to think of it, how did you get here?" Ruby demanded.

"Steven told me roughly where this place was, and what it looked like, so I hiked out and climbed up here. I heard you had been seen coming this way and found the message in the crater that used to be Steven's home. Now tell me, is he alright?"

"I wish I knew..." was Ruby's only answer.

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And, BOOM! Chapter done! I really hope you'll love it as much as I do, and of course that you'll all review and tell me what you think of this and the last few chapters. Also, from now on,... ALL temperatures will be given in Kelvin, because it is much easier for me to work with. If you want to figure out how much it is in Celsius of Fahrenheit, there are lots of simple and free converters all over google, so it isn't too hard to change it. Anyways, goodbye for now!


	27. The decent into darkness 12

Hello there everyone! Just reminding everyone that this is the second to last chapter of the second book, meaning that after the next chapter there will be a short break, no more than a week, before the story continues. But until then, enjoy this one!

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The cold air blew softly across the mountain top, causing Connie to shiver. She had been talking to Ruby for a little while now and had learned that Peridot had come back, freed Jasper, and taken all the others away, along with some stranger named Shard. In fact, it had been thanks to Shard that Ruby was here. But unfortunately, there was no way for Ruby to get any information from homeworld without going there herself, which would just be a death-wish. But, hopefully sometime soon whatever Shard wanted her to wait for would be done, and until then Connie could stay up there with her.

Deep within the shadowed recesses of his mind, Shard had been working hard for weeks, calculating and planning with excruciating attention to detail. Anything less, and it could be deadly for everyone involved. But after his all this time, he was ready. It was time to return to Lapis and the Crystal Gems in a very different part of his mind.

The fifth memory was gone now. It had taken several days to go through all five, but those horribly disturbing memories were gone now. Not everything was looking up however, as the burning Earth was still present in everyone's thoughts. Once Shard returned, they would have to ask about that. For now, they tried to content themselves with wandering around in this seemingly empty mindscape, which was strange considering how much Shard seemed to act like he knew. Maybe factual knowledge and processing information occurred in a different part of the mind?

Not long after they had left the doors behind, Shard began to appear in front of them. It was about time, he had a lot of questions to answer. As he grew more and more solid, the familiar features of his smiling face and dark trench-coat became clearer by the second. Once he was fully materialized, he immediately cut them off, not giving them so much as a second to ask him anything.

"Sapphire, the calculations are done and my body is about to be moving, we have to go now!" he half-yelled as be waved his arm to tell her to follow him. "Hurry, we don't have much time!" As he continued to call her, he also kept running away, towards a gray blur which had appeared on the horizon.

After a brief moment of hesitation, they all took off after him, catching up rather quickly as he wasn't running very fast. At least until they got to him, then he sped up to match their speed. It looked like any conversation they were going to have would have to be on the run. "Where are we going?" Pearl asked as they gray abject slowly grew closer.

"Back to the place you came in at! Although I only need Sapphire, you could've all waited until after we're done and I came back. Either way, I can take control of my physical body without the orange me realizing it as long as it isn't for more than a couple minutes, and very soon he'll be walking alone and un-monitored through a dark tunnel. That gives me a very short window to get you back to Earth. I just need to make sure Sapphire's mind is back in her gem first!" By the time his explanation was done, the Gems could see that the gray object they were approaching was the 'elevator' they had ridden down in, although this time the glow it produced had an orange hue rather than its normal blue.

The Gems nearly tripped over themselves in surprise at this proclamation, but thankfully they managed to keep moving and soon recovered from shock enough to talk again. "How are you going to get us back to Earth?!" Amethyst exclaimed, an eager and excited look on her face.

"Not you, just Sapphire. I have a tiny warp gem built into me, too small for normal warping, so I plan to use it to warp her Gem back to the galaxy warp with a process it has taken me these last several weeks to figure out exactly how to do. I call it 'long range fusion', and it's why Ruby isn't here with us. I managed to get her Gem off Peridot and left it on Earth, and assuming she made it, she's waiting at the Galaxy warp now. You two share the strongest connection, which is why I picked you two, no-one else can come. If everything goes according to plan, you'll be able to fuse into Garnet on Earth even though you're separated by thousands of light years now!"

As Shard finished this explanation, he arrived at the lower door of the 'elevator' and ripped the door right off. As soon as he let go, it vaporized back into the mindscape it was made of, and he stood in the opening. "Hurry on in!" he commanded as he jumped down into the huge hole of the elevator shaft below him.

The others, still in shock, and with Sapphire full of joy, looked at each other for a second and then deciding to part. Sapphire then jumped down into the hole. As she fell, instead of speeding up in her decent, she gradually slowed down. Shard, who was slightly below her, also was slowing down. Suddenly, they both stopped at nearly the same height, before starting to accelerate upwards, back to the memory hall. Shard never did like obeying gravity, and it looked like he didn't let it control him of his friends when in his mind. As they reached the top and fell back upwards into the hall of memories, Sapphire remembered how huge it was. This was going to be a long trip...

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Well, that does it for this chapter! I hope you like it, and remember, the next chapter is the last before my one week break! Don't forget to review, and I'll see you all next time!


	28. The decent into darkness 13

Alright! Final chapter before the end of book 2, and before my one week break from writing! Also, probably, no promises, but about the half-way point in the story overall! Please enjoy!

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Sapphire was about to start running down the hallway, but Shard quickly reached out and grabbed her hand, holding her back. "Let me." he said, after which he took off at speeds far beyond anything Sapphire could reach, getting back to the end of the hallway within seconds. "Now listen, this is very important. I didn't want to say anything to the others because they might freak out, but it is necessary for you to know. When I showed you the Earth, all burnt and dead, I showed you a memory I have yet to have obtained. Don't bother asking how. Just know this: that future is un-avoidable, and it is going to occur in about two weeks. I'll give you a crystal linked to a warp pad I built on a small, out of the way planet the Gems would never go after. Once you become Garnet, you need to get every sentient being on the entire Earth off the planet and to that one. I don't know what will become of you and them, but the planet can at least temporarily support life, and it's better than burning. I know it's a lot to take in all at once, but you have to go now. Goodbye."

As he said goodbye, he let go of her hand and gave her a gentle shove towards the blank wall at the end of the hallway. She fell through, out of Shard's mind and back into her own. It didn't so much feel good to be back as it much as it just felt... right.

Meanwhile, Orange Shard was walking down a long, darkened corridor, alone. The homeworld Gems no longer classified him as a threat, and while orange he wasn't. But as he walked, his orange suddenly disappeared, and the real Shard was once more in control. Still walking, he lifted his shirt and opened the door into his chest. Reaching in, he pulled out Sapphire's gem and a small warp gem. Once Sapphire's gem was removed from the stasis field he had kept it in, she began to reform almost instantly. He continued to walk.

Soon after she had returned to her gem, Sapphire felt a change. She realized that she had been unable to regrow for many weeks, but now felt as if whatever had been limiting her had been removed. So she began to take on her normal appearance. She found that she was being walked rapidly down a nearly pitch-black tunnel next to Shard, except his chest was still open. She could see his Anti-Matter gem in its core slot, and off in the side Lapis', Amethyst's, and Pearl's gems, along with an empty place which she supposed had been her place for the last two months.

Shard handed her the warp gem in his hand. It was the only thing now standing between humanity and death. Nearing the end of the tunnel, Shard quickly directed Sapphire to place the hand containing her gem onto a mini warp-pad just in front of his core. As she did, she saw the Anti-Matter crystal glow brightly for a second, sending power down into it. Then everything was a blur...

Sapphire had left. Shard was glad, at least a part of his plan had worked. Continuing down the passage, he closed his chest and put his shirt back down, before allowing his Orange imposter control again. He wouldn't even know he hadn't been in control. But for just a little while longer, he must be in control again, until Shard's endgame move came into play...

Back on Earth, Ruby felt a strangely familiar presence, but could see no one other than Connie, who was in front of her. Just then, a huge white beam of light shined down onto the galaxy warp pad, and her hand seemed to be stuck to it. She saw a faint blue tint far up in the beam, but before it could get very close, her body began to glow and turn back into energy. The blue blur did the same, and before she knew what had happened, the light was gone, and she was standing on the pad as Garnet once again.

After a brief moment of confusion, she looked down at her hands and saw that she was indeed whole again. Connie just stood watching her, a look of awe and extreme surprise on her face. She was about to jump up and celebrate, but inside, something told her not to. So she stood for a few seconds more, getting the brief story of what had happened from the Sapphire part of her mind. It looked like things were about to get a whole lot more complicated...

Steven could barely believe it himself, but here he was doing it. The training he was under was surely not quite the strongest, but his latest challenge had been a twenty-four straight hour fight against three opponents. True, since this particular part of his training was more for endurance than raw power, tactics, agility, or anything else, they were only fighting him at a small portion of their capabilities, but the extreme fatigue from fighting the last twenty hours was really taking its toll on him. He wasn't sure if he could stay up much longer though...

Suddenly, the whole planet rumbled. Just a tiny bit, but they other Gems definitely felt it. Even Steven just barely detected it. It was only a few seconds later that he was told to go back to his room, and that training for the rest of the day was cancelled. He was glad, but also confused. What could have made such a disturbance? As he sank back down onto his 'bed', he wondered how Shard and the others were doing.

Many large and armed guards came running in to help contain the possible problem the Gem scientists had just sent out a message about. Orange Shard had just exited the corridor that came from the chamber he had been working in until just a few minutes ago. Only a half minute before he had come out of the corridor, a large shockwave had blasted out from him, and at the same time the scientists had detected a huge power spike from him. Then he had appeared at the end of the room, looking relatively normal, but slightly pale.

After having been ordered to report, Orange Shard scanned his databanks and found that some minor core malfunction had occurred. No wonder he felt a bit weak. After scanning him for themselves, the scientists determined that he seemed to be telling the truth, which meant he was still properly under their control. But things were about to change...

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Well, that's it for the last chapter of the second book! I hope you really liked it! The next chapter is due out on next Thursday, but if I get a whole bunch of reviews on this chapter, I may just get it out on Wednesday instead. See you soon, bye!


	29. Shadows of ages past 1

Hello everyone! Welcome back to Time Crash, and a day early no less! After a nice break, I finally am back to writing, on what is now book three out of either four or five, although which I haven't quite yet decided. But, enough of this author's note, I think what you really want is the story. So, enjoy!

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Garnet finally was done listening to Sapphire's shortened story, and much as she would have loved to go into more detail, this was not the time. She had only a couple short weeks to evacuate all of humanity to a new planet before their current home was destroyed. One of her biggest problems was that even with Sapphire's super-sonic speed, there was no way to get to everyone on the planet in time, much less get them back to the Galaxy warp. What could she do though? She was only one simple fusion, and there were at least seven and a quarter billion people on Earth, plus who knows how many gem-creatures...

The grating roar of huge industrial machines blasted out sound far beyond the three hundred decibel range, mere nano-seconds of exposure to which would destroy a human's eardrums and make them permanently deaf. But to the Orange Shard, it didn't matter. Sure, it would have been nicer if the noise was reduced, but his only purpose was to build weapons and obey orders, not to enjoy himself. So down he continued to walk, now over ninety percent of the way to the very center of the planet. It was just above the core where he turned off the stairs and walked through a new door, towards his next assignment. The object responsible for the darkest day of humanity would be forged right here, and he was glad to be building it.

Meanwhile, Steven's next day of training had begun. Since his twenty-four hour fight hadn't been completed, it was decided he would be given a very difficult but quick fight for the day to allow him plenty of time to rest, for the next day his twenty-four hour trial would be reattempted. Swords, shields, fists, and about anything that was capable of being thrown were all used against and for him. His powers were certainly increasing, but his happy personality was beginning to crack. Already it had decreased, and it wasn't going to be long before it vanished completely...

After dropping Sapphire back into her own mind, Shard faded back into control of himself for a short time, working quickly to get her back to Earth. After it was done however, he faded back in to the end of the memory hall. His trip back down it was much slower than when he took the little blue gem back to her body. Rather than running, he simple walked at a slightly faster than normal speed. He was dreading having to talk to the others about the dead Earth memory, so he decided to drag out his return slightly. But after a few minutes of walking, he noticed something wasn't quite right... one of the doors was cracked slightly open.

"Huh, that must be the memory they entered when they first arrived... I wonder which one it is?" he said to himself. His curious nature getting the better of him, he decided to look in. He was about to wish that he hadn't... He opened the door slowly and slid in through the crack, carefully closing the door behind him. Once inside, he found himself out in the sea, watching his past self swimming towards the crater containing the horrendous fusion Lapis had been part of. "Hm... this would NOT be the same place the Gems were..." he said once more to himself. "All things considered, I'll have to jump forwards until I'm close enough to reach tem if I don't want to be waiting all day."

So Shard turned back to the place the door had been. Of course it had disappeared, as they were apt to do once someone had entered them, but for the one the memory was part of, it could be easily summoned back. He reached his hand forwards into the empty space in front of him, closing his hand around the non-existent knob. And as soon as his hand reached the place the knob had been, the door reformed, with the knob resting perfectly in his hand.

Shard quickly left the memory, this time making sure the door was closed from the outside before moving on. With the knowledge of where he had been, he was able to estimate about how long it would be until he could meet up with the Gems again, in other words, how many doors down to go. Soon he found what he was looking for. He opened this new door and stepped in, closing it behind him. What he saw next was very displeasing. There were the Crystal Gems, or at least Sapphire, Pearl, and Amethyst, all a short distance from his sleeping form on the couch. All of them were talking about how he was a monster. If he'd still had blood, which he hadn't for a very long time, it would've boiled. It was no wonder what had happened to him that night had happened now.

Much as he wanted to stop them immediately, he stopped himself when he saw that Lapis was now entering the door. Thankfully, his little corner was dark enough that none of them Gems could see him, so he just continued to watch. Lapis, unlike the others, didn't call him a monster. Instead, she just starred at his past body on the couch. More specifically, she was looking at her gem on his chest. It almost looked like she was... blushing? At least, that's what the even deeper blue now on her face seemed to be. Then, a slight glow appeared from her past gem, and her body returned to its normal form, albeit still sleeping. For just a second he paused the memory and took note of the time, he'd been wondering exactly what time it was when her body returned. Then, he want back to watching.

As the past Lapis seemed to cuddle up to him, the other Lapis watching it was definitely blushing now. In fact, he couldn't remember a time he had ever seen such a deep shade of blue... but either way, his incredibly sensitive ears could hear faint sounds coming from Amethyst's room. This must have been the point she woke up and came out at. He couldn't let her see the others though, so he took the only option available to him. He quickly opened an exiting door from this memory, and grabbed the starring Pearl's shoulders and pushed her out through it. Then, he went back into the memory at a slightly earlier point, and took Amethyst and pushed her out as well, right next to the him pushing Pearl, and kept going until they were all out. Then, he himself went back into the hall to make sure they hadn't gone in any other doors. And he was going to have a few choice words to say to the Gems once he found their present selves again...

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Aaaaaannd... BOOM! Chapter done! Now I do realize that this may be one of the most confusing chapters yet, and that's ok. Next chapter will attempt to explain a little what exactly is happening here. But remember, time travel, even if that isn't TECHNICALLY what Shard does, is often a hard to understand business, so don't feel too badly if it never quite makes perfect sense. Still, I hope you enjoyed this, and again want to ask you to leave as many reviews as possible, because I seriously love every single one. Until next time then, bye!


	30. Shadows of ages past 2

Alright, I hope you're all ready for a new chapter, because I have one right here! Enjoy!

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"Connie, you have to go now." Garnet stated in her usual calm but commanding voice. She knew she didn't have much time to waste, but since Connie was already here she might as well warp her off now.

Connie heard what Garnet said, but she didn't want to go yet. Not after all she had done to get here. "I can't go back home now!" she said. "I'm not going back until I know what happened to Steven!"

Garnet admired the girl's perseverance in trying to make sure Steven was ok, but she wasn't in the mood to argue at the moment. "You aren't going home. I meant you have to leave Earth. I need to come on the first trip too in order to make sure the place is safe enough. Now please, get on the warp pad."

Connie could sense the urgency in Garnet's voice, but leaving Earth wasn't exactly what she had prepared for when she had come out here. It didn't seem like she had a choice though. Even though Garnet hadn't said so, the tone in her voice made Connie sure she'd be leaving whether she wanted to or not, so she might as well cooperate. She walked up to the warp pad and hesitantly climbed onto it. Although she had seen Steven and the Gems warp many times, she had never actually traveled that way before.

Once Connie was standing on the pad, Garnet took the tiny warp gem Sapphire had brought back and moved around to the back of the pad. Down at the base, and hard to see because of all the little bits of plants growing around it, she found the other tiny warp gems which told the Galaxy Warp to link to homeworld. Removing them, she placed the new warp gem in its proper slot, and hoped that it wasn't defective. She climbed up onto the pad and stood in the middle, Connie just next to her. "Don't move out of the light." was all she said as she activated the pad. Then, they were gone...

Shard had walked down the hall for nearly an hour, going into and removing the Gems whenever and wherever they had wandered in, being careful not to exit with them. Now he had finally removed them all and closed all the doors. Now he could return to the elevator. This time, though, he ran. Maybe not quite as fast as when he had taken Sapphire down it, but it still only took a few seconds to reach the elevator shaft, which he immediately jumped into headfirst. Down, down, and further down he fell, not only was he not slowing down to avoid impact, he was speeding up. Soon he smashed into the bottom of it and rolled out, completely unhurt.

He saw only a short distance away the three remaining Gems in his mind, not counting his orange counter-part. In an instant he was upon them.

For just a split second the Gems faces were eager and expectant for the news on whether or not Sapphire had been able to return to Earth, but as soon as they caught a glimpse of his face they cringed back in terror. His smile was gone, and replaced by a large frown, something that nearly never happened, even when he was really sad or angry. It was terrifying.

Just before reaching them, Shard slowed down and stopped. He stood with hands clenched into fists and with a dark scowl on his face. In a very forcibly restrained voice, he spoke. "Lapis. Please. Leave now." Even in the throes of rage, he didn't forget the please. The very air around him was darkening by the second, and he was visibly shaking, although only barely. Scarred, Lapis turned and ran. His gaze followed her for only a few seconds, soon snapping back to Pearl and Amethyst. As soon as Lapis was far enough away to not hear what he was saying, he would speak.

Lapis was now well out of sight. Shard took one deep breath in an attempt to calm himself slightly. He had to remind himself that these Gems were not his enemies. His anger still exploded. "How DARE you! How dare the both of you! Do you have any idea what you put me through when you were back in those memories!?" he screamed at them. "What have you got to say for yourselves!?" The yelling alone had helped get some of the anger from his system, but Shard was still very mad. He looked back and forth between the two shaking Gems.

The very air around them suddenly became darker, taking on an almost red tint, and the smooth 'floor' extending endlessly in all directions became rough, bumpy, and jagged around them. This quickly dissipated however, and Shard finally seemed to calm down. The anger still remained in his eyes to a much smaller degree, but now he just looked more hurt than anything. As he continued to calm, the mindscape returned to a more normal smooth and light area, rather than dark and rough.

"Just... Why? Why did you hate me?" he asked. "Not just you two, but all of you..." he said as he motioned behind the still-terrified Gems, images of several million other beings from other planets showing up as he imagined them. The two looked out over the sea of people from planets long gone, Amethyst knowing none, and even Pearl not knowing most of the species herself. As Shard continued to calm down, he eventually allowed them thoughts of the others to dissipate. "I'm sorry..." he said softly. "I never meant to take out so much anger on you two, it has just been building up for so long, and after those nightmares you caused... I'll be back when I can control myself again..." And with that he vanished, leaving the Gems once again alone.

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Hey everyone! I'm really sorry for the longer wait for this chapter, I wrote and rewrote it many times, and I still feel like it isn't quite as good as it should be. But, I can't just spend another week working on it to make it just a tiny bit better, so here it is. If you do like it, please tell me, and if you don't, please tell me exactly WHY, because I can't figure out why myself. Until next time, bye!


	31. Shadows of ages past 3

Hey everyone! Sorry about the slow updates, but to make up for them, I'm going to be putting the next two chapters up on the same day. Enjoy!

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Far out in the depths of space, a beam of white blazed, traveling beyond all comprehensible speeds. Soon it reached its destination. Garnet and Connie arrived on a warp pad on a long-abandoned planet. It wasn't quite dead, but it was definitely dying. Vegetation seemed scarce, and the ground was dry and hot. The sky overhead was a dull yellow-orange, even though it was not yet the planet's night. Up in the sky, a dim orange star could be seen, nearing the horizon but not yet at it. The planet seemed a little like the future Earth in Shard's memory, but not nearly as far gone. It was not at all as nice as Earth was now, but it would have to do...

Steven's fighting training was now over. Well, the beginning one... he would have many more later on. But for now, that portion of training was done, so he was taken to a new arena for specialty training. First, he was going to be tested to determine what types of weapons and fighting styles he was best at, and then he would be assigned to different trainers accordingly.

Shard was not happy with himself. Sure, his emotions were literally thousands of times harder to control while the orange thing was using his body, and sure, he had been bottling up said emotions for centuries, millennia even... but to scare the Gems just because of a few months of nightmares? It just wasn't right. He'd have to figure out a way to apologize properly. First though, he had to find Lapis.

The final components of the planet killer were being installed. Orange Shard watched as the last pieces of plating he forged were locked into place around its core. The top and bottom halves of the device were currently separate, with the core resting in the lower half. Wires, cables, gems of all sorts, and lots of complicated venting systems composed the next layer out. Then came a few thing layers of a metal alloy far more advanced than any Earth had produced, holding the core safely. Next came holding bays, full of slightly smaller, newer versions of the kindergarten drills. More vents, more wires, more power cells, propulsion, and lots of objects similar to solar cells formed the layer beyond that. Covering the whole thing was a series of hulls, closely fitted together, and all combined having a total thickness of about two feet.

The entire bomb was shaped roughly like a pointy-nosed zeppelin. It was slightly under five hundred feet long, and had a diameter of about eighty feet. The supercharged and brightly glowing phase crystal was brought out by machines, being too dangerous even for most Gems to directly touch. It was inserted into a slot in the dead center of the core. As soon as it was locked into place, bright energy from it flowed into the many cold energy cables and vast lines of circuitry, lighting up the inside of the bomb with a pale green-white glow. Hundreds of thin layers of force-fields began to shield it, dimming the light slightly. Special metal spikes were activated around it, absorbing energy and shooting arcs of electricity stronger than any lightning bolt around, only for them to be reflected into various mini warp gems built into the core. Orange Shard finally pulled the lever to lower the top half, floating over to make sure the two halves fused properly. The universe's most deadly weapon was complete.

Steven worked hard at all the tests. He didn't really want to help these evil Gems, but he had to be convincing if he didn't want to get in really big trouble. It seemed that his best talents were in the defensive field, so he would be trained specially as a shield-bearer for protecting important troops during fights. Thankfully, although it wasn't the easiest job, it was less dangerous than being on the front lines.

Shard had been searching for hours now, and yet he found no trace of Lapis, and by the time he stopped looking for her, he couldn't find Amethyst or Pearl either. Today was just getting worse and worse. Where could they be? It was his mind after all, it wasn't like they could just... hide... in his mind... Oh no.

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Ok everyone, I know this chapter was really short, and I'm sorry, but I'm just having some real trouble with this part. I have the last several chapters all figured out, but these few are really taking their toll. Please enjoy this one however, and be looking for the next two in a few days. Bye!


	32. Shadows of ages past 4

Hey everyone! Sorry for the wait before this chapter, but I'm finally back to getting chapters out again, so yay! Have fun with this one!

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It seemed that being interrupted was just going to have to become part of Steven's life now. In the middle of the second day of his training in the new specialized... 'class', if it could be called that, an announcement was made to everyone in the building that Yellow Diamond and White Diamond had arrived. All the gems, instructors and technicians to strong warriors, turned to face the entrance and kneeled on one knee. One of those closest to Steven hissed an order somewhat angrily to him, telling him to do the same. Not wanting to face the wrath of the Diamonds any more than the other Gems, Steven obeyed. Soon the two massive leaders walked in.

"Please don't be there... PLEASE don't be there..." Shard continued to repeat to himself as he flew along at high speeds, out of the normal portion of his mindscape and into a much darker, redder one. Unfortunately, the Gems he had been hoping not to find were indeed here. Just in front of them was his orange doppelganger, and they were clearly at his mercy, which even more unfortunately for them was not something the homeworld Gems had seen fit to give him.

"Well well, what have we here? Three pathetic excuses for lifeforms that I banished to the nightmares? Aw, what happened to the other one, she dead?" the orange freak laughed. "Serves her right, such a weak creature shouldn't be allowed to continue living. A kindness really." He looked down at the frightened Gems below him, tied up with cords of raw mental energy and unable to move. "What's the matter, don't like being confined? Well, too bad. I don't know how you got out of The Hall of Nightmares, but you're all going right back in. This time though, you aren't going to be able to move your hands." With this, he gestured to them and gauntlets appeared on all their hands, but unlike Garnet's, the fingers couldn't move, and both hands were stuck together.

Seeing the goings-on, Shard quickly stopped before his distracted 'twin' could see him and sank through the floor. He would have to find them again... he still couldn't risk being seen by the pesky little orange virus, lest his presence be broadcast to every scientist on Geminius Prime. Thankfully, he knew roughly where the poor frightened Crystal Gems were going to be tossed, so he could get there a little ahead of time... he hoped...

Once more Orange Shard opened up a hole to The Hall of Nightmares and threw the Gems into it, closing it behind them. If they managed to escape again, he would be forced to dispose of them in a much more violent manner. Thinking back on it, he almost regretted his decision to not beat them senseless, but just like mercy, regret wasn't something he was programed to feel either...

As Connie and Garnet walked around the surface of the strange dying world near the warp pad, just to be sure nothing too dangerous was directly around, the ground beneath them began to rumble. At first it was only barely noticeable, but it quickly became more destructive, loose bits of rock tumbling everywhere, and the few small dry plants that struggled to survive being shaken so hard that their last remaining leaves began to break off. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the vibrations stopped. Connie and Garnet stood and looked around expectantly, in case of an aftershock to the earthquake. Or, more accurately, just the quake, since this was not Earth...

The three Gems, bound and unable to resist, fell down into The Hall of Nightmares, landing with a thud. This time, not only were they immobile, but the covering shadow Shard had projected last time was gone. Instead of the creepy but not too outright scary darkness, huge windows showing horrifying sights surrounded them. Each window, which was about as large as the whole front of the house that had been part of the temple on Earth, had a few thin lines crossing it as diagonals from the four corners. At the point where they crossed, a tiny metal plate containing three dates sat.

The first date was just enormously large. The second constantly changed, slowly growing larger. It was counting up from a few months ago, apparently from when it first started. Lastly, the third also remained the same, just a time stamp of Shard's exact age when the nightmare began. What the first one was none of them could guess, but they were inexplicably drawn to watch this particular nightmare. Thankfully, they didn't have to enter this one to watch it like with the other memories...

As the three of them watched, many strange creatures appeared in large clusters around Shard, who was floating out in space somewhere. Some of them would say one thing, some another, but they all mainly talked about one major fact... They all called him a monster, a failure, and a freak. More and more groups arrived and joined in the torturous accusations. Yet another group arrived, but these ones were more familiar. What had they been called... Spirilons? Something like that... These ones, however, also began to berate him for his failures. Then they saw something that really affected them.

Down through the window they peered, watching as faded and broken versions of themselves, plus a large number of blurred humans, approached from one of the few empty sides. They first began to berate him like the others, but then something strange happened. The order of the last few words the other thems were saying... it was exactly the same order and way they had been talking in the first memory they'd been in... and what was more, thinking back, the date was about the same time that memory had been from... Could it be that... they caused this nightmare?

"Shroud of Ome-L-treerius? No. Hastemaker's plane? No... Where are they!" Shard yelled to himself as he left the windows he was at and flew further down the hall, looking for the three Gems. He'd already searched over four miles of the hall, and there was just so much left to go. He'd been lucky last time, if he believed in luck, which he didn't. But this time he didn't land comparatively right next to them when they entered. For all he knew they were all the way at the other end of the hall and that he was going the wrong way. But he had to keep looking, there was no telling what could happen to them and/or him if they accidently found out how to enter the nightmares... if that happened, there wouldn't even be much point looking for them, they'd be dead before they had time to realize what happened... In a mostly futile effort to keep his spirits up, he kept talking to himself about whatever good things he could think of. "Four miles down... Only another seventy to go..."

Pearl looked at the date that continued to count up, trying to think exactly how long ago it would be. She unnecessarily placed her fingertips next to the numbers as she read them as if to mark her place, a habit she'd picked up on Earth reading books. As her fingers brushed over the numbers, three small doorways appeared in the bottom section of the window. They had on them the same timestamp as the plate on the window. On the first door the word TIMELINE was written, on the next, MEMORY, and on the final one it read THOUGHTS. In addition to providing answers, which they all felt was overdo and somewhat owed them, these doors might just be the way out of this place...

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Finally! I've been typing this for days, and just every possible thing is being thrown at me to slow me down. Besides a massive dose of writer's block, I'm in my last few days of school before the end of the year and have a bunch of tests. Still, I've finally got this done, so you all have fun with it! Lastly, the next chapter, which I promised would be out the same day as this, I do still plan on doing that. For me, I'm uploading just after midnight, and I'm hoping to both write and upload the next chapter sometime in the evening several hours from now. Not quite what I originally wanted to do, but I don't have many options... So, look out for the next one soon!


	33. Shadows of ages past 5

Alright, here is today's second chapter! I don't really have much to say for an author's note, but I do want to reply to comment number 44. Don't worry, Steven will be going home... although he'll also be staying with the Diamonds... and a few other people he knows... Basically, major stuff is going to go down soon. Enjoy!

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The two Diamonds looked at the small crowd of Gems kneeling before them for a brief time. They loved watching them quiver in fear at their immense power. But they were here for a very specific reason, which meant they couldn't just stand around all day. White Diamond finally spoke.

"The half-Gem and his instructor are to remain here. As for the rest of you, make yourselves scarce. Understood?" his voice boomed.

"Yes Sir." all the other Gems replied, hurrying away. Soon Steven and his teacher were left alone, the Diamonds towering over them.

"On your feet, now." Yellow Diamond commanded.

The two rose. Steven looked up at the huge Gems. The teacher next to him shook slightly with fear. Steven wasn't exactly comfortable, he knew what these beings could do when they were mad, but he didn't see any reason to shake when they didn't seem angry.

The Diamonds ordered the instructor to give a quick report of Steven's progress with his powers. They hadn't bothered themselves with anything he had done since arriving until now. They didn't consider him worth their time. But, if they were here they might as well find out if it was even worth it to keep him around. The trembling trainer gave a brief summary of what Steven had learned under him, making sure to mention that while most of his powers were significantly weaker than a true Gem of his size and age, his bubble shield was one of the strongest he'd ever seen.

The smaller of the two Diamonds turned and quietly asked something to her bigger partner. The two then talked for several seconds amongst themselves, White Diamond finally nodding to his smaller partner's request. Yellow Diamond turned again to Steven. "So it seems your shield is pretty strong. I'll be the judge of that. Raise your strongest shield." she demanded.

Steven didn't know what she was planning, but after a few seconds of concentration, he summoned the strongest bubble shield he could. To his surprise, Yellow diamond then brought both her fists down together on the top of the shield, significantly cracking it, and only barely being stopped by it in time to avoid hurting Steven. The sudden action startled Steven so much that the rest of the shield quickly disappeared.

"Not too bad..." the two Diamonds said in unison. "Needs a little more training, but eventually might be a pretty good defender..."

White Diamond then told the instructor that Steven would not be attending the next several weeks of training. Before he could protest, White Diamond also told him that if this was a problem, it wouldn't be to hard to get a replacement. The instructor shut up immediately. He didn't need to be reminded again that he could be destroyed for arguing. Then White Diamond told Steven to follow him, and that if he knew what was good for him, he would be quick about it. Steven obeyed. The Diamonds finally allowed the trainer to go back to work as they left, Steven following behind them as best he could.

Back within Shard's mental chambers, deep within a nightmarish hall, an Amethyst and a Lapis looked on as the Pearl reached out to the door in front of them marked: "Memory". As Pearl opened the door, they all braced themselves for the worst. Thankfully, it seemed almost empty, just a dark grey background which they had almost mistaken for blackness until their eyes adjusted slightly. Peeking her head in, Pearl looked around; and, seeing nothing, soon pulled it back in and closed the door.

Once it was closed, it was Lapis' turn. She reached out to the door in front of her marked: "Thoughts", and pulled it slowly open. The trio was quickly bombarded by lots of rapid, flashing images, although thankfully not very brightly lit as the light would've been blinding compared to the darkness around them, and also by lots of sounds and words. Most of them words were just Shard's voice, randomly saying that the things around him were wrong or that he wasn't a monster. It didn't take long for them to realize that this door also was not what they were looking for. Oh well, third time's the charm...

As Shard flew down his least favorite hallway in his mind, he was suddenly subjected to blasts of noise, his own voice almost shouting at him from somewhere else. It was only a second later that he realized what was happening. This was about to get very bad... he had to stop the three meddling Gems before they did something really stupid... thankfully, the noise told him exactly where they were. Winding himself up, he suddenly shot down the hallway yelling at the top of his lungs.

Amethyst reached out carefully, grabbing the knob of the "Timeline" door. It felt smooth and oddly cold in her hand. Time itself seemed to slow down as she slowly gripped it tighter and began to twist it. A voice reflected down the hallway. It almost sounded like someone was telling her not to open the door. The doorknob fully twisted now, she began to open it. The tiniest sliver of dim light filtered through before Shard crashed into her. Thankfully he had slowed down enough that they all didn't go flying, but it was still fast enough that they both fell to the ground.

Rolling to the side immediately, Shard quickly stood back up. "Don't open this door!" he half-shouted as he backed into it and closed it, standing in front of the door with a terrified expression on his face, as if to keep them from going in. "Just trust me, please! You do NOT want to see what's in there." Ever so slightly shaking, from head to foot, this time Shard didn't seem nearly as scary as he had the last time they had seen him.

Amethyst also quickly got to her feet, although not quite as quickly as Shard. She looked at him as he stood quaking in front of the door. "Why should we trust YOU?" she asked.

"Listen, I know I lost my temper earlier... I'm sorry. I can't tell you how much I regret that. I also know I've had a few secrets I've tried to keep. But you have to believe me, no matter what I may have done or said before, I'm only trying to keep everyone safe here." he pleaded. "You have no idea what you were about to do."

"Oh, so now we're just clueless? Is that it!?" she demanded, starting to get worked up herself. "Just because you know some stuff we don't doesn't make you smarter than us!" Before Shard could react, she shoved him out of the way and grabbed the knob again, this time pulling it open all at once. Shard hung his head slightly from his current position on the floor... he hadn't been able to stop them...

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And that's how you end on a cliff-hanger, ladies and gentlemen! I can't believe I typed this all up as fast as I did, but somehow I managed. Please review, and enjoy!


	34. Shadows of ages past 6

Well, I know that I ended on a cliffhanger last chapter, so I'll make this short... 6k views! I can't believe it! Thank you all so much! Enjoy the chapter!

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This was not a planet that looked like it could support the population of Earth very well... but it would be better than actually staying on Earth, so, Garnet told Connie to stay there while she went to get the rest of the people. She began to make her way back to the warp pad.

"Hey, I don't want to just wait here! I can help you!" Connie said as she ran over to the warp pad as well.

Garnet looked down at the young human below her, trying to decide whether she should let her come along or not. She did need all the help she could get if she wanted to save everyone... "Okay."

With Garnet's standard to the point answer and approval, Connie climbed up next to Garnet and before she could even thank her, they were being beamed back to Earth in a huge pulse of white light.

After nearly a half hour of following the two Diamonds, Steven found himself at a massive door. White Diamond knocked at it and then opened it, revealing most of the other Diamonds within. Only Blue Diamond was missing.

"Come over here Quartz." Green Diamond called him. "We're going on a little trip, and you are coming along. We're leaving as soon as Blue Diamond gets back with that insane destructive 'friend' of yours." he said, speaking of Shard. Steven reluctantly walked over the platform the Diamonds were all waiting on, which he knew was used for rapid transport of large groups from a few days ago when he had been on a slightly smaller one. Strangely, he wasn't convinced that the Diamonds were bringing him on this trip to be nice...

The door was now open, and the three Gems had seen in. Shard had been too late. Through the door they saw into the moonlit living room of the temple house. Lying on the couch was Shard, Lapis' gem on his chest. A partially transparent Sapphire, Amethyst, and Pearl stood huddled in one part of the room. Just slightly in font of the house's door stood a partially transparent Lapis, and just next to the mental door was a partially transparent Shard. The sounds of the three huddled Gems in the memory could be heard faintly, trying to decide if Shard should be allowed in the house.

Just looking in at the other versions of themselves, Lapis, Pearl, and Amethyst felt almost... dizzy... What kind of trickery was going on here? Amethyst began to step in.

"Please, you can't!" Shard said, his voice strangely almost a whisper.

Amethyst disregarded him and placed her foot in anyways. She immediately felt a weakly painful shock in it. She quickly pulled it back. Trying her hand, the same kind of shock zapped it.

Shard had pulled himself up by now, and, remembering that he was the one in control here, he pulled Amethyst away from the door and closed it quickly. Then, he yanked the entire door out of the wall. Now he had a door in his hand, and no hole was in the wall where he had taken it from. He made a strange symbol with his hand over the door and it soon faded away.

"What are you trying to do here!?" Amethyst yelled at him. "Why are you adding us into your memories?"

"I'm not! Those aren't memories!" he replied before starting to talk to himself again. "Oh, this is bad, this is so bad..." He began pacing slightly back and forth, looking back at the window every few seconds. "Okay, calm down, it wasn't that long... maybe it won't have much affect..."

As if on cue, a cracking sound could be heard, and once again Shard's attention snapped back to the window. Except this time, it had a big crack in it. The dark setting of the dream behind it began to grow slightly lighter, and the crack began to have other smaller cracks form off its sides. "Or maybe it will... I'm not saying you should get too scared, but I would suggest that you all be very quiet and back away from this window slowly..." he said in a loud whisper as he began to slowly move backwards himself.

As the crack continued to grow, a deep black liquid began to ooze from it, flowing almost consciously towards Shard and the three Gems, who then also began to back away. They were all being backed against a wall, and the liquid kept getting closer. Shard was doing his best to open an escape hole in the wall, but it was opening very slowly. Soon it was almost big enough to get though, but the liquid was only inches away. With one last push, the hole opened enough for them to fit, and they all rushed through before he started to close it, which was far faster than opening it. Unfortunately, it was too late. One big drop of the liquid had fallen through before the hole was closed and splashed on their feet.

All of them were gathered together now, the Diamonds, Steven, and Orange Shard. The huge platform began to speed along its set path towards the largest spaceship Steven had ever seen. It was the personal command battleship of the Diamonds themselves. Soon they had arrived and the Diamonds all stood, starting to walk into the ship's open door. "Get in." They commanded Steven and Orange Shard. They both followed, Steven looking rather nervous and Orange Shard still as emotionless as ever.

"Orange, stop." Red Diamond spoke up. "You get in the hatch with the bomb."

"Understood." Orange Shard replied. He walked back down and moved to the underside of the ship to a large opening, where the massive bomb he had helped make was being loaded. Grabbing on to it, he climbed up into the ship and sat in the huge bay full of other weapons, although none as huge as the one he had just climbed. Once it was in, the doors under it closed and a bunch of engines began to blast away. It was time to return to Earth.

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So, what do you all think? This chapter feels a little forced to me, although it might just be me... Anyhow, next one will be out soon. See you then!


	35. Shadows of ages past 7

Alright, next chapter! Also, we're finally about to get to a part where something positive happens instead of everything going wrong! Of course, it won't be until the next chapter, but things are finally going to get back on track for our heroes. Enjoy!

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"Ahh! Get it off me!" Shard yelled as he began violently shaking his foot to try to get the black liquid off. The other three stared at him, unsure of what to do. Shard just kept shaking around, desperately trying to get it off. "Don't just stand there! Get the stuff off yourselves before it starts to affect you!" he commanded. "And don't touch it with your hands!" he warned as Amethyst was about to just wipe it off. All four of them tried their best to remove the liquid, but it wasn't long before it began to take hold on them. As Shard's vision grew dark, he realized it was too late, and stopped his senseless attempt to avoid what was coming. _"Well,"_ he thought, _"here we go again..."_

From atop the tall mountain holding the Galaxy Warp, a tiny glimmer could suddenly have been seen off in the distance. A second later, and that glimmer was a huge pillar of light projecting into the main pad. As it died down, Garnet and Connie stepped out of it. After a few brief words, Garnet grabbed onto Connie and jumped down the mountainside, getting them both down in seconds where it had taken Connie hours. It would only be about fifty minutes to Beach City this way.

Soon after Shard stopped fighting, the others began to slow down and stop resisting as well, although not for lack of trying. For a few brief moments, their vision became cloudy, then everything melted away. When vision returned a minute later, they almost wished it hadn't.

Amethyst woke up in her room, which was strange since the only access to it had been on Earth in the temple which was now gone. Still, it was real, she was sure of that much. As she walked around, the vast piles of objects swayed dangerously. She saw Steven off in the distance trying to grab something from one of the swaying piles. She began to run to him to ask him how they got there. Before she got to him though, he succeeded in pulling the object loose, which caused the already swaying tower to fall. Before Amethyst's eyes, she saw the pile descend on Steven as he tried to run, until suddenly, he was crushed...

Amethyst stopped and stared in shock, dropping to her knees after a short time and trying to process what had just happened. As she did so, the other towers of junk began to fall, one by one, until they were all gone. A cold and uncaring wind began to blow through, sweeping away all the junk it had taken her so long to collect, and Steven's body along with it. The wind then died down, leaving Amethyst alone...

Pearl woke up to a different sight than Amethyst. Surrounding her on all sides were all of Rose's favorite things, and she seemed to be standing in... Rose's room! She looked around and saw that standing just a short distance behind her was Rose herself, and next to her was Steven. Pearl was unsure of many things immediately, especially how both of them were standing there together, but those thoughts were very quickly overwhelmed as she ran over to them.

"What are you doing here, you stupid, misshapen, defective pearl?" Rose said as she turned to look at her. "Yeah, what's a failure like you doing in such a perfect room anyways?" Steven asked. Pearl was stopped dead in her tracks, if she'd had a heart it would've stopped. Tears began to well up in her eyes, but before she could say anything, the whole room began to spin and fall away. Only Rose and her son remained, circling her again and again, laughing at her...

Lapis also woke up in a separate place. She was in a tiny little prison cell, one which made any other she'd been in look huge in comparison. Outside the barrier, she could see tens of thousands of Gems watching her. Among them was Steven, watching along with all the others. While she wondered what they were doing, she heard a sound behind her. She turned around to see Jasper, who was smirking and holding a small silver mirror. "Hey you, brat! Guess where I'm going to put you after I get done beating you?" Jasper said. "And guess who paid good money to watch? That's right, your little friend!" she said as she pointed out at Steven. While Lapis cowered in the corner, the big yellow-orange Gem got closer and closer, until she grabbed at Lapis' gem on her back and began to try to rip it from her. It wasn't long before she found herself looking once more out of the mirror that had been her prison for so long, except this time, she was there to stay...

Upon awaking, Shard was subjected to darkness deeper than any shadow could ever be. He looked up the see a small circle of space and stars, tiny bright dots shining away the same way they had always done. Every second, the circle became ever smaller, although only doing so at a rate someone with an extreme attention to detail would ever notice. Bits and pieces of objects he had once known now floated down with him, into the darkness. The cruel fate of them all was oblivion, a complete deletion from existence. The last picture he and his family had been in together, back on his homeworld of Rovaris 4, fell down in the distance, suddenly swallowed up. It was gone forever now. As the circle got even smaller, his feet dipped into the darkness as if into a perfectly spherical pool of liquid, but a liquid so dark, lost, and dead that it didn't release even a single ripple. The came his legs, his waist, his chest even his neck. As his lower head began to sink in, he closed his eyes. He would never need to open them again...

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I think this may just be the most dark chapter yet. But the darkness is about to (partially) end! Be sure to read the next chapter as soon as it comes out to find out how this all ends. Until next time, bye!


	36. Shadows of ages past 8

I hope you're all excited, because things are going to start getting better in this very chapter! Also, thank you everyone who actually stayed around for this chapter, I really appreciate it!

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It didn't take long for the black liquid to be used up on Shard. His nightmare was biggest one after all. Once it was finally used up, the hold of the nightmare on him began to fade rapidly. Back within his dark dream, with the liquid now gone, Shard realized what was happening.

_"Wait a minute... this isn't real!"_ Shard thought just before he was fully absorbed by the dark object below him. "NO!" he shouted. "I will not fall to this dream!" As he said so, he pulled his arms and hands up out of the darkness, even though a moment ago he had been believing they were gone. Soon he had pulled himself fully out of the deadly orb below him. "Now, what was I doing before I got thrown in here... The Gems!" he exclaimed. He began to concentrate as hard as he could, willing himself to wake back up. Gradually, the area around him faded away, and he was back in his mindscape once more.

Once he was back, he was able to see that the others were being very deeply upset at whatever was happening in their nightmares. Unfortunately for them, their nightmares weren't bound as closely to the real world as his was, so the black liquid was being used up much more slowly. If they were to wake up soon, he'd have to take more drastic measures... Now, which one should he wake first?

Back in Lapis' dream, her mirror was lying in the prison cell on the ground, alone and forgotten. At least, it had been. Her mirror saw the door to the cell being opened, although whatever was opening it was just out of sight. Once it was open enough, the tall and thin figure of Shard slipped in. _"Oh no, not him! What's he going to do to me that I haven't already had happen?!"_ she thought. He stooped down and took the mirror in his hand, then lifted it and began examining it. Then, he grabbed her partially broken gem and pulled it from the back of the mirror, freeing her.

"Lapis, you have to heal yourself. I can't do it for you." he said. "This isn't real, this whole place is a fake! It's only a dream." His voice sounded strained, as if he was having trouble believing his words himself. She wasn't so sure they were real either. But, she did so want them to be... she tried her hardest to think of her gem being healed, and to her surprise, it actually began to work. Soon her gem was fully repaired and she began to reform. As soon as she had though, Jasper reappeared at the door, looking very angry. Lapis began to shake, not wanting a confrontation with the large Gem.

Shard had other plans for the brute that was scaring his friend. Just because they were dreaming didn't mean she could get away with that.

"Hey, runt!" the yellow-orange Gem yelled at Lapis. "I'm about to beat you so much you'll wish you were back in that mirror!"

Lapis began to shake and back away from her, but Shard stood his ground and turned to face Jasper. "I think you're mistaken on who will be beating whom..." he said as he began to pound his right fist into his open palm. The bigger Gem angrily lunged at him. Shard moved slightly and then took a large swing at her, smashing his fist into her nose and cracking her gem into several pieces. Her physical form instantly dissipated, leaving a few broken bits of her gem to fall to the ground. "And she will not bother you any more..." Shard said as he turned back to Lapis, who stood in shock at how quickly he had defeated her attacker. "Now please," he said, "wake up."

Shard and Lapis woke up at the same time a moment later. Lapis had been lying on the floor, having moved around while asleep. Shard was kneeling next to her, his hand on what remained of the black liquid on her foot, which was almost nothing now. As Lapis began to be more fully aware of her surroundings, the last tiny bit of it evaporated away, and Shard removed his hand. Lapis looked over as to her side when she heard a strange noise, and saw Amethyst and Pearl also lying on the ground in strange positions, bits of the black liquid still on them. Of all the things that had just happened, she was actually most in disbelief at the speed at which Shard had taken out Jasper.

"Are you ok?" he asked her, although with a rather urgent tone in his voice. At first she didn't respond, still a little unsure of her surroundings after having been in such a realistic dream. "Lapis, are you ok?" he repeated several seconds later, more urgent this time.

"Uh... Yeah..." She replied slowly.

"Good. I wish I had more time to make sure you're alright, but I've got to help these two..." Shard said as he reached out and touched the black spot on Amethyst's leg, losing consciousness nearly instantly. He soon found himself in a huge room, almost completely empty, except for Amethyst sobbing to herself in the center. This might take a while...

The massive ship grew ever closer to Earth. The Diamonds hadn't given much explanation as to why they wanted Steven to come with them, and were in fact in their privet chambers, not bothering themselves with him. They would be ready to give him his final test soon enough...

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So, what do you think? I'm hoping that you all liked this chapter, because I feel like something is wrong with it, I just can't figure out what. As always, please review, and I'll see you all in the next chapter. Bye!


	37. Shadows of ages past 9

Welcome back everyone! I know I've been gone for a while, and I'm sorry about that. I was taken on an unexpected family vacation to a place with no wifi, so I couldn't get the story up. But now that I'm back, I'll do my best to put a few more chapters out before the next family vacation, which is only 3 days away at the time of posting this... Either way, enjoy the story!

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It wasn't very long before Amethyst was brought out of her nightmare. As she bolted upright, Shard's eyes also opened, his hand leaving the spot that had been covered in the black liquid. He looked up at her as she fought to return her breathing to normal, which was strange considering she didn't technically need to breathe.

"Are you alright now?" he questioned, doing his best to look right at her as he did so. His eyes continued to dart off to the side however, betraying that he was equally concerned about something else.

"Uhh... yeah, I think so..." she replied as she rubbed her head. "What are you looking at over there?" As she asked she began to turn to look with him, and saw Pearl passed out with the black liquid on one of her legs. She gasped slightly.

"Good. Keep Lapis company while I help Pearl. I'll be right back." With that, Shard moved over to Pearl and prepared to grab onto the liquid.

"Wait! What's going on?" Amethyst exclaimed.

"All answers in good time." Shard said as his smile grew a little bigger, his hand moving down and touching the blackness on Pearl's leg. As he started to pass out yet again that day, he repeated himself. "All in... good... time..."

After Garnet and Connie arrived in Beach City, it was only a very short time before Connie's parents found them. At first they were furious, although happy to see their daughter, they were also very angry with her for running off. Garnet stepped in front of them before they could get too excited.

"Where have you been!?" Mr. Maheswaran yelled at Connie, trying to move around Garnet to look at her.

Garnet moved more, keeping herself between Connie and her father. "Now is not the time to ask your daughter questions." she said in her usual calm and commanding voice. "There is an enemy coming to Earth and it is time to evacuate. You can talk later."

Orange Shard sat next to the massive bomb, waiting in the dark. Soon it would be dropped onto the un-prepared Earth below. He would enjoy watching the bomb crash down upon it. Until then though, or at least until he received new orders, he would wait here.

Lapis and Amethyst watched the two still beings in front of them. Since touching the liquid, Shard hadn't moved the tiniest muscle, not that he really had any. Pearl had been mostly still, although every so often she would twitch a little. It had been a good bit longer than when he had gotten either of them. Whatever was happening, it didn't seem like it could be good...

"We don't live in this city, we can just go back to our house!" Connie's mother said, trying to reach around to grab Connie's hand.

"We've got to evacuate more than just the city." Garnet continued to speak in the same voice. "This evacuation is planet-wide. Go back to your home and gather some things. There's not a lot of space, so choose what you want to save wisely. The last chance to leave the planet is in only a couple weeks, and it should be cleared earlier if possible."

The Maheswarans could barely believe their ears. First their daughter had ran away to go look who-knows-where for a boy, and was gone for many days, then once she got back, they were told that they would have to leave the planet. They weren't sure if it was some kind of sick joke or not, but if it was it wasn't funny. Actually, even if it wasn't, it still was disagreeable and so far outside of normal they barely wanted to consider it. The only problem was, it didn't seem like they had much of a choice... It took a little bit, but Connie's father finally found his voice.

"So, if we don't leave, what then? If something is coming here, what's the worst it could do? Nothing could really destroy people across the whole planet, could it?" he asked, just a bit of fear in his voice.

"Anything alive that is still on the planet after the last warp will be dead once they get here. No exceptions." Garnet said. "Take Connie and go prepare, I must gather the rest of the population." She then stepped away from Connie, letting her go back to her parents. "I'll see you here tomorrow at about this time."

* * *

Yeah... I'm sorry you had to wait so long for such a short chapter. I would love to get more done on it, but I have lots of things going on even before I have to leave, so I don't have more time to work on this. I will try to have one more chapter out before I leave early Thursday, maybe more, but no promises. Until then, bye!


	38. Major News!

"Hey! I'm back after... Far longer than I meant to be... I'm really sorry about that. A LOT of major stuff has happened to me, and unfortunately, I just cannot finish this story. BUT... I do have a solution for you. Everyone that wants to, post a comment asking to take it, and I will choose someone to tell the rough outline and planned ending for the story, and then they can continue it. See one of you real soon! :)


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